Long Covid in the media and social media 2023

Maybe literally — Larger gray matter volumes in neuropsychiatric long-COVID syndrome (2022, Psychiatry Research)

But also the opposite — SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank (2022, Nature)

 

I don't think this has been posted. Pfizer published an article about Long Covid. It seems to mostly repeat possible factors from another source, 7 hypotheses behind LC (listed below), but the most significant about this is probably simply the fact that they likely published this because it has finally gotten the interest of pharmaceuticals.

Which is definitely a gold mine when you think of it. It is a curable illness that affects millions of new people non-stop. People can get it, need treatment, and may need it again in the future, or it doesn't even matter since brand new people keep getting it anyway. Which is the business model of the psychosomatic quacks. They know it'll never disappear, they have an infinite mass of patients sent their way. They can call it a fad all they want, for sure they know that they will never stop getting patients. But for pharmas this is a huge opportunity.

There is frankly no reason to think that post-infectious chronic illness can be prevented. Not until all infections are, at which point basically all diseases would be solved. That's a long way off. A lot of business ahead. It's basically the perfect disease for drug companies.

The hypotheses:

1. Viral Persistence
   
2. Immune Dysregulation
   
3. Latent virus reactivation
   
4. Autoimmunity
   
5. Microclots
   
6. Dysfunctional Neurological Signaling
   
7. Disruption of the Microbiome

The Challenges of Defining, Understanding, and Addressing Long COVID
https://www.pfizer.com/news/article...ining_understanding_and_addressing_long_covid

 

Seems like a gray area gray area if you ask me.

 

I'm surprised you have a negative opinion of this. I think it's great. People at one of the world's largest drug companies are outright saying LC is biological. It's part of a trend of post-infectious illness gaining acceptance within mainstream science and medicine. It makes me wonder if they could be researching LC treatments, or planning to.

 

I'm not sure that's true. If it can be diagnosed, treated and cured at time=n, then it might be perfectly possibly to diagnose, treat and prevent symptom development at time=0. Eg

• A patient-centric modeling framework captures recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection (2023, Nature Immunology)
• Systemic Perturbations in Amine and Kynurenine Metabolism Associated with Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Inflammatory Cytokine Responses (2021, Journal of Proteome Research)

with commentary from Jeremy Nicholson -

 

I've seen many M.D's on Twitter recognizing the seriousness of LC and approving this so it is a good thing putting that out there.

 

I don't see how my opinion was negative. I just don't expect anything soon. That usually holds up perfectly. This industry moves slower than molasses in the Arctic (which on second thought actually isn't always true anymore...).

I see it as a good sign, money is probably the only human motive that can save us. I just hope they see the revenue stream soon and get working on it. It's even bigger than I painted it in my comment, since you can include pretty much everyone who has symptoms past 2 weeks, and there are so many of them, continuously and on a rolling basis. At 3 months people would easily spend any amount they can, let alone past a year.

It truly is the perfect business model for a drug company, mostly thanks to the combination of policies encouraging mass reinfections and total systemic indifference to the outcomes, which maximizes the illness in both quantity and severity. I hope they see it, it doesn't seem to for now, though, or they'd be throwing a lot of money at it already.

 

That's what I mean. It's not just worth it for us who have been ill for years. It's worth it for every single person who is ill for more than 2 weeks, and I see no reason to think that there is any difference between being ill for 3 weeks, 3 months or 30 years. There is a common factor that can be targeted and that's a client base far larger than most diseases.

 

I see this similarly to the old saying about how the future is already here, just not evenly distributed. Some people are on the cutting edge, others are stuck in the distant past, most are aimlessly wandering around. Usually, very few are on the cutting edge, we just got to figure out how to grow it.

 

It appears Pfizer has just issued a RFP (Request for Proprosal)

Pfizer Independent Medical Education RFP Updates in Post-COVID Conditions: Potential Causes, Assessment, Testing, Management, and Ongoing Research

'Through this RFP it is our intent to support educational programs on post-COVID conditions targeting primary care providers''

Date RFP Issued: July 19, 2023
Geographic Scope: United States
Clinical Area: COVID-19
Link to full RFP: Updates in Post-COVID Conditions: Potential Causes, Assessment, Testing, Management, and Ongoing Research
Application Due Date: August 24, 2023
Specific Area of Interest: Program objectives may include, but are not limited to, the following:

https://cdn.pfizer.com/pfizercom/20...ons IME.pdf?Vs0oChI9674pzuPOpm6UJ1qxAZm5tGmU=

 

Unfortunately, very small beans.

Individual projects requesting up to $300,000 will be considered. The estimated total available budget related to this RFP is $900,000.

 

NIHR hosted a webinar on Long Covid Kids, titled "What are the next steps for Long COVID research?". Given their funding of the ClocK study, which specifically aimed and delivered denial of LC (oh, and a study that concluded that someone should study LC, such shmart people), I don't know if it's worth much, but whatever, for the record. Very long, looks about 6-7 hours.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFW1EW_PAriS0mJqApZA4nHnpxk3aUqIw

And a write-up article, but it doesn't say much: https://local.nihr.ac.uk/news/what-are-the-next-steps-for-long-covid-research/33987.

 

RNZ Prof Danny Altmann: the burden of long COVID

quote:

Another disease noted for similarities with long Covid is ME/CFS - myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

"They are terribly similar. And it's really helpful and illuminating to join up those discussions," Altmann says.

"Almost every time I go on TV or radio I get a certain amount of comment from people in the ME/CFS community, really quite angry with me, and saying 'well you've jumped on the bandwagon now, but where have you been the last 20 years? Nobody's heard us, nobody's listened to us, nobody's researched on us'.

"My answer is - firstly an apology on the part of the medical community, because yeah, nobody was prepared to fund that research, nobody was that interested, nobody had the wherewithall to look at it with it.

"And, now I think we're at a kind of Rosetta Stone moment where understanding one can illuminate the other in a bi-directional way, because so many things that were discussed over the years in ME/CFS are almost certainly relevant for long Covid and vice versa."

 

Here's the clip of Prof Danny Altmann talking about #MECFS and the similarities with #LongCovid

https://twitter.com/user/status/1682711051073204224

 

I'm not sure if this is a good analogy since when the Rosetta Stone was found it had a rapid impact, experts recognized it for its major importance. Maybe not immediately immediately, but it definitely did not take decades of ignoring it, then several more years after it was identified properly. We are way past the point at which it has been studied, identified and recognized for what it is.

For sure ME/CFS, and chronic illness, are comparable to the Rosetta Stone, but there has been no such moment yet, the experts are, in fact, mostly dismissing, denying and generally ignoring it.

It's more of a Cassandra pointing and gesticulating frustratingly at the stone that everyone is ignoring moment for now, as it has been from the start.

 

Since we rarely ever hear anything from the RECOVER NIH initiative:

By which she simply means that most long haulers had a mild illness, quote is a bit mangled. It's a short video.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1682453423650934784


Unfortunately I tried with a direct link to the video and it doesn't work.

 

Video from Ed Yong. Haven't watched yet but he's been one of the best journalists covering this and I see familiar faces in the interviews.

Long COVID: What Do You Need to Know?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F226T43cPGI