Category: Long Covid
Preprint: Internal tremors and vibration symptoms among people with Long Covid
“Sometimes my entire body feels like it’s humming and trembling. It’s like I’m sitting on a huge speaker with the volume all the way up.”
“Internal vibrations started about 3 weeks after. They started in my back and back of upper thighs. It felt like I was sitting on a vibration massage chair. They never went away but would vary in intensity. February 2021 I started having restless left arm at bedtime where my left arm would flap until I fell asleep. On [May 2021] it progressed to full body myoclonic movements lasting up to 30 minutes.”
“My brain shakes after a few hours inside my head, my face starts to tingle and numb, and then the full head shaking seizures start. I have severe head pain and nausea constantly from all the seizures.”
“That week of unrelieved spasms left my body barely able to move. Like paralyzed. I had 3 natural child births. I could not fake such 10/10 pain. I have never felt such intense pain, I thought my back would break and my right arm would be completely dislocated twisted out of socket. I could not breathe at times due to the Laryngeal spasms and diaphragm spasms.”
Medrxiv Preprint: Internal Tremors and Vibration Symptoms Among People with Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2: A narrative review of patient reports
“She [Ferrer] said it was like somebody inserting a cell phone into your chest and turning off the vibration function, but they have the ability to turn it on randomly at any point in the night,”.
Salon.com – Tremors and “internal vibrations”: Long Covid patients are reporting Parkinson’s-like symptoms
What is in your vaccine? German researchers analyze Pfizer & AstraZeneca vaccines to find out
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Italy: Up to 70% of patients with moderate to severe Covid-19 report neurological symptoms 6 months later
Up to 70% of patients with moderate to severe Covid-19 report neurological symptoms 6 months later, including chronic fatigue (34%), disturbances memory/concentration (32%), sleep (31%), muscle aches (30%) ) and depression and anxiety (27%). However, these problems are often manifesting themselves even in those who have had mild Covid.
Ilfattoquotidiano.it report (in Italian)
Study: Neurological disorders associated with COVID-19 infection: An Italian multi-center cohort study (NEURO-COVID) (in English)
From an earlier post on Coronaheadsup: Will the UK’s mass Covid infection experiment pay off?
“Covid-19 is a global squid game. There are only two rules to the game:
1) Don’t die of the virus
2) Don’t become infected with the virus”
Similar numbers from a different study:
Long Covid: Cognitive impairment and psychiatric symptoms may affect up to 76% of patients
Covid causes brain damage, even in mild cases
“We’re following about 700 patients here at McGovern. We’ve looked and found dramatic increases in brain injury markers in the blood of people with Covid,” said Dr. McCullough, MD, PhD, chair of Neurology at UTHealth.
An alarming study done in the UK has found something similar.
Researchers had brain scans from over 700 patients, which were done before the pandemic. They did second MRI’s around three years after the first scan. 394 patients between 59 and 63 years old got the virus between the two scan. Those who recovered from COVID-19 had more brain atrophy or shrinkage in parts of the brain that control taste, smell, and memory. Most of those COVID cases were mild.
“Is it going to increase Alzheimer’s rates, dementia rates – even in people who are only mildly affected? This is something that could be a major public health crisis 20 years from now,” said Dr. McCullough “The next step is seeing, do the patients who have the worst brain shrinkage or volume loss have the worse memory?”
Long Covid: Cognitive impairment and psychiatric symptoms may affect up to 76% of patients
Photo by Fakurian Design™ on Unsplash
Denmark: Covid infection rate in children is 1,328 cases per 100,000
In Denmark, it is still the children and young people that the infection is highest in right now and at the same time at the highest level during the entire pandemic. Many children are infected – and they then infect the parents
The infection is highest among school children aged 6-11 years. Here you now see an incidence of 1,328 cases per 100,000. This is also evident in a high number of Covid-19 outbreaks in schools. This is especially true in schooling and at the intermediate level as well as among the staff in primary schools. The second highest infection is now seen among the 40-49 year olds with 466 confirmed cases per. 100,000 and at roughly the same level as the 12-15 year olds with 463 confirmed cases per. 100,000.
“It is clear that it is the children who are carrying the infection right now, and we also see that they are bringing it further into the families and the close contacts. So even though the children may not get so sick from Covid-19, people close to them can get infected and get sick ”
Denmark’s SSI report (in Danish)
** An entire generation of children across the globe are in the process of being damaged, disabled, or killed by Covid-19. The prevailing response by governments to this crisis, however, is not to protect our children but to remove protections for them, to throw them in at the deep end and hope that they somehow learn how to swim. This is barbaric, self-defeating insanity **
Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay
Isreal: 11% of kids who got coronavirus now suffer from Long Covid
More than 10 percent of Israeli children who were diagnosed with the coronavirus show signs of suffering from long COVID, the Israeli Health Ministry announced Monday.
According to the data, gathered from a follow-up survey of parents of 13,864 children aged 3-18 who had recovered from the virus, 11.2% reported symptoms of long COVID. Of those who reported long-term symptoms, 1.8% of children under 12 and 4.6% of those aged 12 to 18 were still suffering from symptoms six months after the illness, the survey found, noting that the probability increased with age.
Among those 12 to 18, chances of long COVID were higher among those who had coronavirus symptoms. However, researchers also found long COVID even among 3.5% of the children who were asymptomatic when they tested positive.
Millions of British schoolkids have been infected with Covid since the pandemic began, 400,000 kids were infected in British schools in September alone. The long covid case rate in Britain for children could be around 40,000 plus cases in September alone.
Prediction: European Covid winter wave of 2021 will be the worst wave of the pandemic so far
Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay
UK: nearly 400,000 kids infected with Covid in one month
The latest UKHSA vaccine report has just been published. It shows that nearly 400,000 under 18’s were infected with Covid in just one month in the UK’s mad mass infection experiment.
It also shows that the vast majority of the over-18’s in the UK that are newly infected, hospitalized and or have died of Covid are fully vaccinated.
This chart shows new UK Covid infections
Nearly 400,000 under 18’s have been infected with Covid in one month! The vast majority of infections in the over 18’s are fully vaccinated.
This chart shows those hospitalized in the UK with Covid-19:
The vast majority of the over 40’s hospitalized with Covid are fully vaccinated.
This chart shows those that have died of Covid-19 in the UK:
The vast majority of those that died of Covid were fully vaccinated.
UKHSA Covid-19 vaccine surveillance report Week 44
Image by Artist and zabiyaka from Pixabay
Long Covid: Cognitive impairment and psychiatric symptoms may affect up to 76% of patients
A considerable proportion of patients, up to 84% of those with severe COVID-19, show neurological signs and symptoms including anosmia, epileptic seizures, strokes, loss of consciousness and confusion
Beyond 4 weeks after onset, the post-acute COVID-19 syndrome includes cognitive impairment and a range of psychiatric symptoms and may affect up to 76% of patients
Although a direct infection of the brain remains a matter of debate, SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes were detected in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of some patients, supporting the notion that SARS-CoV-2 gains access to the brain
Preprint: The SARS-CoV-2 main protease Mpro causes microvascular brain pathology by cleaving NEMO in brain endothelial cells
Image by Manfred Richter from Pixabay
Prediction: European Covid winter wave of 2021 will be the worst wave of the pandemic so far
This isn’t the most difficult prediction we have ever had to make, but there is no doubt that, despite huge vaccination campaigns across the continent, the winter wave now breaking over Europe will be their worst wave of the pandemic so far.
The difference this year is that, despite raging infections in many European countries, despite vaccine waning, vaccine breakthroughs and reinfections, no government is yet considering measures that are strong enough to contain the tide.
Measures including lockdowns and working from home were imposed in many countries across Europe and North America in early November 2020 to prevent the winter wave worsening. Despite their huge unpopularity, the measures, particularly lockdowns, DID work.
The chart below shows our estimation of what the winter wave would have looked like in 2020 without lockdowns. The global winter wave of 2020 was broken in half by lockdowns in key European countries and in North America which made up the bulk of cases.
Our estimation of the size of the Covid global winter wave in 2020. The winter wave was smashed by lockdowns in Europe and North America:
In 2021, however, many countries in Europe have abandoned the use face masks, social distancing and working from home. Lockdowns have been also been ruled out by many governments, fearful of their unpopularity.
The chart below shows what the European Covid winter wave looks like on the 4th November 2021. The wave that is forming is virtually identical to the wave of 2020. The difference in 2021 is that there are no mitigations in reserve to prevent previous wave records being broken. Without urgent mitigations, this wave could be bigger than the one that engulfed India in the spring of 2021
Europe needs to take its head out of the sand, and do it quickly. There are very few tools left in the toolbox to deal with large waves, and every one of them will be needed this year.
We are still waiting for more data to come in to be able to make a prediction on the size of the global winter wave, but it’s not impossible that Europe alone could carry almost the entire burden of the winter wave this year.
Just to be crystal clear then:
- Vaccines won’t be enough to stop the wave
- Antivirals won’t be enough to stop the wave
- Vaccine passports won’t be enough to stop the wave
- Face masks won’t be enough to stop the wave
- Locking up the unvaccinated won’t be enough to stop the wave
Europe suddenly ablaze with Covid – it could be the biggest wave yet
Decoding Sars-Cov-2: How are global Covid waves formed, and can we predict future waves?
Image by Brigitte makes custom works from your photos, thanks a lot from Pixabay
China: Zero Covid is still less costly than living with it
China’s top respiratory diseases expert has defended the country’s zero-Covid strategy against scrutiny from some public health experts, saying it was still less costly than living with the disease and reintroducing restrictions each time outbreaks occurred.
The country had no option but to aim for zero infections because the coronavirus was replicating quickly and the global death rate of about 2 per cent was unacceptable, Zhong Nanshan said in an interview with CGTN, China’s state-owned international media arm, published late on Monday.
“Some countries have decided to open up entirely despite still having a few infections,” Zhong said. “That led to a large number of infections in the past two months and they decided to reimpose restrictions. This flip-flopping approach is actually more costly. The psychological impact on citizens and society is greater.”
UK: 1500 cases of Long Covid a day at current infection rates
ZOE’s predicted Long COVID incidence rate currently estimates, at current case rates, 1,490 people a day will go on to experience symptoms for longer than 12 weeks
The ZOE COVID Study incidence figures (new symptomatic cases) are based on reports from around 750,000 thousand weekly contributors and the proportion of newly symptomatic users who have received positive swab tests. The latest survey figures were based on data from 42,795 recent swab tests done between 9 October and 23 October 2021.
1918 pandemic caused Long Covid like symptoms in survivors
“The influenza pandemic of 1918 was followed by another epidemic. The disease was encephalitis lethargica, or the sleepy sickness, and like influenza it spread through most of the world. Its symptoms were extraordinarily varied — most commonly there was lethargy, but sometimes there was insomnia, and even frenzy; sometimes there were paralyses, sometimes mental disorders.”
Of the million or so people who came down with encephalitis lethargica during this period, half a million died in the acute stages of the illness; most of the survivors, people who appeared to have recovered, went on to develop, sometimes decades later, a variety of neurological problems, including a crippling form of parkinsonism.”
Oliver Sacks, New York Times, November 2005
Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks’s 1973 memoir of the same name. It tells the story of a fictional character, neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer, who is based on Sacks and played by Robin Williams. In 1969, he discovered beneficial effects of the drug L-Dopa. He administers it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica.
Wikipedia entry on the Film “Awakenings”
Will the UK’s mass Covid infection experiment pay off?
On the 19th July 2021, Britain’s mass Covid infection experiment began. It was dubbed “Freedom Day”, and almost all Covid restrictions were lifted. Despite the record number of Covid infections that resulted from the introduction of the policy, mitigations weren’t reintroduced.
The back-of-a-fag-packet reasoning behind the Freedom Day plan was that an artificially created summer Covid wave would pre-empt an even larger winter Covid wave, thus preventing its health service from being overwhelmed.
In pursuance of the plan, all primary and secondary schools were ordered to reopen for the summer term. Britain’s children were forced to attend schools where all mitigations had been deliberately removed, thus ensuring the maximum spread of the virus throughout the greater population.
We said of the plan, at the time it was introduced, that the UK would simply risk creating two Covid waves instead of one.
So how is the mass infection experiment going?
Figures from the UK Covid app ZOE and Britain’s Office of National Statistics are absolutely damning – Freedom Day has gone horribly wrong.
Millions of British adults and children were infected by Covid over the course of the summer, and thousands died.
It’s been a four month long Covid wave that has been unprecedented in its scale. Incredibly, the number of infections produced by the artificial wave surpassed even the heights of the previous deadly winter wave.
Although daily Covid deaths were reduced compared to the first winter wave, the sheer length of the summer wave has meant that far more people were infected than during the previous winter wave. The infection rate is still increasing, and the health service has been overwhelmed in many areas,
So, was the mass infection experiment a success? If the artificial wave leads to a reduced case load for the health service in the winter, will it have been worth it?
NO and NO.
The British government may have brought forward thousands of infections and deaths that would have otherwise happened in the winter. The UK may even see a drop in cases and deaths over the next few months because of that. But what they have failed to take into account is the long-term damage inflicted on those that have been infected by Covid, and also on those who will be reinfected by it in the future.
To put it simply, in terms that even Boris Johnson and Patrick Vallance might understand:
Covid-19 is a global squid game. There are only two rules to the game:
1) Don’t die of the virus
2) Don’t become infected with the virus
Breaking either of these two rules will lead to a player being eliminated.
It’s a lesson that the British have failed to understand from the very beginning of the pandemic.
Sars-Cov-2 is a BSL4 pathogen. It is not something you should be encouraging to waft through schools, offices, supermarkets and trains. After two years of the pandemic, this really shouldn’t need to be explained repeatedly.
The British government have gambled with the lives of their entire population. It was a gamble they didn’t need to take, and it’s a gamble they will most certainly lose as long-term sickness rates soar.
Let’s hope the victims of this reckless plan manage to see justice one day.
BMJ: One in seven children may still have Long Covid symptoms 15 weeks after infection
Up to one in seven (14%) children and young people who caught SARS-CoV-2 may have symptoms linked to the virus 15 weeks later, suggest preliminary findings from the world’s largest study on long Covid in children, led by UCL and Public Health England researchers.
For the study, published on the preprint site Research Square and funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), researchers surveyed 3,065 11- to 17-year-olds in England who had positive results in a PCR test between January and March as well as a matched control group of 3,739 11- to 17-year-olds who tested negative over the same period.
They found that, when surveyed at an average of 15 weeks after their test, 14% more young people in the test positive group had three or more symptoms of ill health, including unusual tiredness and headaches, than those in the test negative group, while 7% (one in 14) more had five or more symptoms.
The researchers said the data suggested that, over seven months between last September and March, at least 4,000 and possibly 32,000 teenagers of the total population of 11- to 17-year-olds who tested positive in England may have had multiple (three or more) symptoms tied to Covid-19 infection after 15 weeks.
Preprint: Long COVID – the physical and mental health of children and non-hospitalised young people 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection; a national matched cohort study (The CLoCk) Study.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Israel: 150 children treated for long Covid in one clinic, hundreds more on waiting list
“What’s interesting, is that in some of the children, it really appears as a direct continuation of severe illness but in very many of the children, there is a severe illness, followed by a lull of several months and only then do the symptoms of long COVID begin,” says Ashkenazi-Hoffnung.
There are “a few children here who, a year after the illness, haven’t recovered, and they have symptoms that are affecting their day-to-day functioning. There are cases in which it lasts for more than a year.”
UK: start to pandemic “worst public health failure ever” – a failure that is still ongoing
Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash