#Coronavirus Recovery

[destielmemenews]

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[gumjrop]

On February 13, 2024, the Washington Post reported that the CDC is considering ending the five-day isolation period for those with a COVID infection according to anonymous CDC staff. It is imperative that the CDC minimally maintains current isolation guidelines to prevent the unnecessary spread of COVID.

Why is the five day isolation period necessary? The five-day isolation period has allowed people infected by COVID to rest and recover from illness and prevent the exposure and spread of COVID to uninfected people. Ideally, a ten-day isolation period is better to ensure an adequate amount of time for rest and recovery.

Allowing your immune system sufficient time to fight the infection is important. Rest and recovery from an active COVID infection is important, as physical overexertion can have adverse effects on one’s health. Even if vaccinated, boosted, and healthy, a COVID infection can greatly harm one's health, and may lead to Long COVID, a condition that has harmed and disabled millions of Americans.

Prevention of exposure to and spread of COVID requires a minimum five-day isolation period. Clear evidence demonstrates that in the course of an active COVID infection, the highest viral load occurs approximately by day 4 of an infection. Some people may have their symptoms end earlier than others, however, early symptom resolution does not necessarily mean the end of infectiousness, as asymptomatic COVID transmission can occur. Ultimately, by preventing COVID infections, the likelihood of people becoming severely ill from COVID, as well as those who will develop long COVID, will be greatly reduced.

The CDC will be considering and making a decision by April. During this time, we urgently ask Congress and the White House to intervene and ensure that the CDC maintains the current COVID five-day isolation policy. 

Instructions:

We must ask Congress and the White House to ensure the CDC maintains the current 5 day isolation policy for COVID infection. It is important that the CDC maintains its current policy to ensure that the American people have enough time to rest and recover from an active COVID infection, as well as to prevent the spread of COVID to other people. Rest and recovery is important, as an infection can have adverse effects on health. Even those vaccinated, boosted, or healthy could face irreversible harm from COVID. Having multiple infections has the potential to increase the risk of developing Long COVID, a condition that has already injured and disabled millions of Americans. Submit a letter to your government officials via Action Network!

Letter to White House and Congress

Example Letter Below:

Dear Representative,

I am writing to ask you to ensure that the CDC maintains the current isolation policy for those with an active COVID infection, as this protects the health and well being of all Americans at work, school, and all other places of gatherings.

COVID infections injure, harm, and cause death among millions of Americans. Everyone must be protected from COVID infections. COVID is spread through the inhalation of aerosol particles, and the risk of becoming infected is higher in indoor settings compared to outdoor settings. Due to its mechanism of spread, the current 5-day isolation policy is a primary key layer of protection for prevention, as opposed to other approaches against infections in public settings. 

Shortening the isolation window is a failure to recognize the clear scientific evidence that people may have the highest viral loads by day 4 of an infection.(1) For some people, their symptoms may abate below the 5-day time window, but they may remain infectious.(2)

The public relies on guidelines that establish sufficient standards in workplaces and other places of gathering. It ensures protection in vulnerable settings, such as healthcare, long-term care facilities, schools, and workplace settings. COVID remains an ongoing pandemic and threat to the health of the American people. Ongoing reinfections result in more people developing Long COVID.(3)  Any consideration to reduce or eliminate the COVID isolation guideline inexplicably fails to acknowledge core control measures for infectious disease. Any changes prevent the public’s ability to have a standard threshold for rest and recovery from a COVID infection. 

We ask for your support to ensure that the CDC prioritizes the health of people first. We urge you to act on the behalf of all people, especially for those who are most vulnerable. This includes those with advanced age, the immunocompromised, those living with other health conditions, disabled people. Let’s decrease infections in our communities by keeping scientific and evidence-based isolation guidelines.

References:

1. Jennifer K Frediani, Richard Parsons, Kaleb B McLendon, Adrianna L Westbrook, Wilbur Lam, Greg Martin, Nira R Pollock, The New Normal: Delayed Peak SARS-CoV-2 Viral Loads Relative to Symptom Onset and Implications for COVID-19 Testing Programs, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 78, Issue 2, 15 February 2024, Pages 301–307, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad582

2. Rinki Deo, Manish C. Choudhary, Carlee Moser, et al. Symptom and Viral Rebound in Untreated SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Ann Intern Med.2023;176:348-354. [Epub 21 February 2023]. doi:10.7326/M22-2381

3. Bowe, B., Xie, Y. & Al-Aly, Z. Postacute sequelae of COVID-19 at 2 years. Nat Med 29, 2347–2357 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02521-2.

Submit Letter to Government Leaders

[compassionatereminders]

So disconcerting standing on a crowded train being THE only person wearing a face mask like did we learn nothing whatsoever?!!

[laurellynnleake]

🚨 COVID19 WEATHER REPORT: HOLIDAY SPIKE RAGES ACROSS USA 🚨

1/1/2024: Okay! Things are bad! We're JUST beginning to see how many people caught COVID-19 during the holidays. Right now it's moving through the USA causing AT LEAST 2 million infections per day (and that's the under-counted government numbers alone).

During this surge, ~100 million people total (~1 in 3 people in the US) will likely get COVID. Different areas will peak at different times, so keep an eye on your local numbers.

Reminder: All our viral data (recorded infections, deaths, wastewater viral count, etc) works on a 2 week delay - the length of COVID-19's initial acute phase where people are contagious and shedding viruses.

We want to slow the current spike down as much as we can by using respiratory masks like N95s, air filtration, and isolating and testing for COVID-19 multiple times after exposure. Hopefully we'll hit the peak soon (and not get hit as hard as Omicron in 2022).

DON'T GIVE UP HOPE! RESPIRATOR MASKS STILL PROTECT US

Respirator masks like N95s and KN95s use electrostatic filters that block at least 95% of dangerous virus-carrying respiratory aerosols, and can be adjusted to fit snugly around your nose and mouth. The few viruses get in, the less "sick" you'll get during the acute phase, and the less long-term damage they'll cause to your vascular and immune system (aka Long COVID).

If you are sick, please stay home and REST for as long as you can - the goal is 14 DAYS even if the surface symptoms seem "mild". People physically need rest to prevent worse damage to our organs. We need immediate emergency aid from our local and federal government to keep people staying HOME and fed and with medicine like Paxlovid.

If you are forced to work while sick, please wear a well-fitted N95/KN95 respirator mask to prevent further outbreak (but surgical/cloth masks are better than none). Avoid CROWDED PLACES, COVERED SPACES, and CLOSE CONVERSATIONS. Stay hydrated and eat easy, bland food, keep cleansing your sinuses and throat with nasal sprays/CPC mouthwash, and take ibuprofen/aspirin instead of tylenol for pain. If you keep struggling to breathe and you can't get enough oxygen, you need emergency hospitalization (look for blue/purple/grey tips to fingers, tongue, lips).

Please take care of yourself and each other! We will get through this.

[inkbotkowalski]

Covid fucking sucks. Why do so many people want to keep getting it over and over

[iakshaysrivastav]

India's COVID-19 Vaccination Success: A Global Leader

India’s COVID-19 vaccination journey is a testament to resilience and innovation, propelling it to the forefront of global healthcare. With over 2.2 billion doses administered as of 2024, India’s campaign stands among the largest and most complex vaccination efforts worldwide. Significant progress has been made. However, the road to achieving full immunization has been riddled with challenges.…

[rozzyblogs]

i love self care and hygiene products and feeling like i’m doing something with myself and treating myself well, because i used to try and do the opposite.

i think this is especially important growing up on social media, especially because of covid, because we were all locked up in our houses and telling each other online about how we wanted to kill ourselves, and we were all so desperate to be worse than each other that we stopped doing things we should’ve been doing. when i was 13, i never washed my face and i wore day-old makeup and i was too unmotivated to brush my teeth. i didn’t dress my wounds. i didn’t care about being comfortable, i cared about survival.

and now things are so very different. and not always in a good way; i still struggle with hurting myself. nowadays it is less about blades and more about empty plates. but things are different, and i care about being comfortable. i drink lots of water. i don’t have energy drinks, because i care now about the anxiety and paranoia the caffeine gives me. i eat fruit (if only easy-peeler oranges) and i don’t stay up until 4 AM every night, because i care.

and i think that’s so hard to admit when you’ve come from an environment where you’re all desperately trying to prove you’re worse than each other. hey, i used a scented soap and the new bath salts i was gifted. hey, i’m sitting in my bed and thinking about how i’m going to go to sleep later at a reasonable time, because i want to wake up in the morning. thats a hard thing to say! that’s a terrifying thing to say!!

i think it is so important for us to tell people. i think it is so important for us to remind each other that we do not want to be worse, we want to be better. i want to wake up in the morning. i care.

[devildrinksvodka]

A Week of Observations

It’s been a soulful week. On Monday I had an interview at lunchtime for a new job. I would be modifying curriculum and training teachers for a private school. Modifying and writing curriculum is actually something that I’ve wanted to do for a few years now. I’m even in the Curriculum and Instructional masters program at my local university- although I haven’t taken a class in a few years. I…

[timesofocean]

Global economic recovery endures but road getting rocky: IMF

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/global-economic-recovery-endures-but-road-getting-rocky-imf/

Global economic recovery endures but road getting rocky: IMF

Eskishehir (The Times Groupe) – The global economic recovery continues, but the road to recovery is getting “rocky,” according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the global economy has been recovering gradually.

As China reopens its economy, supply chain disruptions in the world economy are easing.

Meanwhile, war-related disruptions to energy and food markets are receding, it said.

“At the same time, the massive and coordinated tightening of monetary policy by most central banks should start bearing fruit, with inflation returning to targets,” according to the IMF.

Inflation is projected to slow to 5.1% in 2023, a 0.6 percentage point downward revision from January. Times Of Ocean

[bitchesgetriches]

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Self-Care

Take care of your body

Why You Should Take a Break: The Importance of Rest and Relaxation

I Think I Need to Go the Emergency Room?

Run With Me if You Want to Save: How Exercising Will Save You Money

Your Yearly Free Medical Care Checklist

Ask the Bitches: Ugh, How Do I Build the Habit of Taking Meds?

Blood Money: Menstrual Products for Surviving Your Period While Poor

On Pulling Weeds and Fighting Back: How (and Why) to Protect Abortion Rights

Ask the Bitches: How Can I Survive in an Apartment with No Heat?

The Expensive Difference Between Recreation and Recovery 

Take care of your mind

Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care Tactics

How Mental Health Affects Your Finances

Ask the Bitches: “How Do I Protect My Own Mental Health While Still Helping Others?”

Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos and Your Big Brain

Everything Is Stressful and I’m Dying: How to Survive a Panic Attack

Stop Recommending Therapy Like It’s a Magic Bean That’ll Grow Me a Beanstalk to Neurotypicaltown

Making Decisions Under Stress: The Siren Song of Chocolate Cake

Ask the Bitches: I Know How to Struggle and Fight, but I Don’t Know How to Succeed

Update: I Know How to Struggle and Fight, but I Don’t Know How to Succeed

Ask the Bitches: How Can I Absolve Myself of Financial Guilt Over My Pricey PS4?

The Frugal Introvert’s Guide to the Weekend

Take care of your time

Stop Measuring Your Time in Beyoncé Hours

Help! I’m Procrastinating and I Can’t Get Up!

You Won’t Regret Your Frugal 20s

Actually, Fuck Big Goals

How to Insulate Yourself From Advertisements

I’ve Succeeded at Every New Year’s Resolution I’ve Ever Made. Here’s How.

Romanticizing the Side Hustle: When 1 Job Isn’t Enough

8 Free Time Management Systems To Try in the New Year

My 25 Secrets to Successfully Working from Home with ADHD 

I Am So Over Productivity Porn 

Take care of your career

High School Students Have No Way of Knowing What Career to Choose. Why Do We Make Them Do It Anyway?

The Actually Helpful, Nuanced, Non-Bullshit Way to Choose a Future Career

Woke at Work: How to Inject Your Values into Your Boring, Lame-Ass Job

Are You Working on the Next Fyre Festival?: Identifying a Toxic Workplace

My Secret Weapon for Preparing for Awkward Boss Confrontations

Freelancer, Protect Thyself… With a Fair Contract

I Hate My Job and I Don’t Know How To Leave It: A Confession

A New Job, a New Day, a New Life, and I’m Feeling Good

Season 1, Episode 9: “I’ve Given up on My Dream Career. Where Do I Go From Here?”

How Abusive Workplaces Mirror Abusive Relationships 

Take care of your space

How to Successfully Work from Home Without Losing Your Goddamn Mind (Or Your Job)

Leaving Home before 18: A Practical Guide for Cast-Offs, Runaways, and Everybody in Between

Ask the Bitches: I Want to Move Out, but I Can’t Afford It. How Bad Would It Be to Take out Student Loans to Cover It?

How To Maintain Your Car When You’re Barely Driving It

Take care of your people

How Dafuq Do Couples Share Their Money?

Ask the Bitches: “How Do I Protect My Own Mental Health While Still Helping Others?”

How Can I Tame My Family’s Crazy Gift-Giving Expectations?

Ask the Bitches: I Was Guilted Into Caring for a Sick, Abusive Parent. Now What?

Love in the Time of Coronavirus: How to Protect Your Community and Your Soul from COVID-19

Be Somebody’s Eliza with a Simple Yet Life-Changing Act of Kindness 

The Ultimate Guide to Helping a Sick Friend 

Learning To Reverse the Golden Rule

I Have Become the Rich Relative I Always Wanted  

Take care of your financial well-being

Ask the Bitches: How Can I Make Myself Financially Secure Before Age 30?

How to Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year

Ask the Bitches: Is It Too Late to Get My Financial Shit Together?

Slay Your Financial Vampires

Should Artists Ever Work for Free?

Don’t Spend Money on Shit You Don’t Like, Fool

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Financial Math

Share My Horror at the World’s Worst Debt Visualization

Stop Undervaluing Your Freelance Work, You Darling Fool

A (Somewhat) Comprehensive List of Fun Job Perks that Won’t Pay Your Rent

We will periodically update this list with newer articles. And by “periodically” I mean “when we remember that it’s something we forgot to do for four months.”

Bitches Get Riches: setting realistic expectations since 2017!

Join the Bitches on Patreon

[covid-safer-hotties]

Back in early 2020, the news of the strange illness causing terrible pneumonias in China saddened me, but I believed I was safe in Canada. Within weeks, there was a reckoning: thousands were dying on my doorstep, too.

Directors of an independent living residence at the start of the pandemic asked me to become the residence’s COVID-19 advisor. They had no qualified medical staff, despite supporting elderly residents. Back in those early days, anyone with a medical qualification was commandeered to help in any way they could.

Confronted with the task of providing guidance to the nonmedical staff taking care of these residents, I decided to learn everything I could about the pandemic. At that time, about 1,000 papers were being published every month detailing research into every aspect of the coronavirus. Of course, I couldn’t read all of them, but I read as many as I could and built a breadth and depth of evidenced-based knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. I wrote up the protocols and during my tenure as COVID-19 Advisor for this residence, we kept COVID out.

As a family physician seeing COVID-19 in my practice, I came to recognize that so many of my colleagues and patients had no idea how to keep themselves safe from the coronavirus, nor were they aware of its long-term risks. I saw the need to take action and effect change, which ultimately led me to becoming an advocate for Long COVID awareness.

I started the medical education company Kojala Medical, aiming to provide evidenced-based information about medical issues in a form patients could understand and reliably trust. I wanted a credible, trustworthy site to which I could refer my patients, colleagues, friends and family. We started with a focus on COVID-19 and have now expanded to Long COVID, with the site longcovidtheanswers.com.

I first learned about Long COVID in 2020 through publicity raised by the Body Politic COVID-19 support group, then became more alarmed as I read scientific articles about the disease.

Aside from the official death toll of over 7 million from COVID-19, Long COVID has emerged from the pandemic as the single biggest disaster to afflict humanity, yet very few people who are not sick with Long COVID are aware of it, want to know about it, believe in it, or even acknowledge that it’s happening. Sadly, many in the medical profession fall within that group of non and disbelievers.

This is bizarre, especially because of the impact of the disease. One recent review estimates more than 400 million global cases of Long COVID. I am furious that not enough is being done to alleviate this suffering. The injustice of yet another neglected and marginalized chronic illness that disproportionately affects women.

So, rather than sitting around waiting for ‘someone’ or ‘body’ to do something, I decided to act.

For me, medicine is fundamentally about aiding people to get as well as possible from any sickness they have — and even more importantly, preventing people from getting sick in the first place. In both of these regards, we are failing people with Long COVID dismally.

Long COVID is not the flu, it is a multisystem debilitating infection associated chronic condition. Developing Long COVID can be disabling and life-changing. Recovery remains low — and some manifestations like heart disease, dysautonomia, and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) may last a lifetime.

This is a terrifying situation to be in when, as a global community, we have chosen to act as though the pandemic is over and repeatedly expose ourselves to SARS-CoV-2, a grade 3 biohazard, with little to no protection.

As I read more and more research papers about Long COVID and looked at the inaction of global governments and my own profession, I feared that we were sleepwalking into a global mass disabling event unnecessarily, since we have many technologies available to prevent this.

Infection-associated chronic conditions do not have an established medical speciality, and are rarely taught in medical school. With the medical profession disengaged, people with Long COVID have been left to find answers for themselves.

My work aims to build on support groups, which have helped establish caring communities for people with Long COVID, but have also paved the way for us as scientists and medics to change the way we conduct research in a more patient-focused way. Nevertheless, they don’t entirely fulfill the need for evidence-based information about the disease in a readable format for nonmedical individuals.

I saw a huge need for a comprehensive website that would be of use to all people with Long COVID, their caregivers, the scientists researching the disease, and the multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals that would be needed to rehabilitate them. Our organization believes that Long COVID The Answers meets those requirements.

There is also a pressing need to train medical professionals so that they will acknowledge Long COVID and feel confident about diagnosing and managing it. Inspired by an interview with Dr. Ric Arsenaeau, an expert in managing complex chronic diseases, my team and I created a podcast series: so that medical providers can receive continuing professional development/educational credits from watching this series.

The podcast series features a range of experts, including people with Long COVID, doctors, scientists, educators, and medical clinicians. Some of these experts also serve on our advisory board, overlooking and participating in the project.

Our site aims to raise awareness about the dangers of continuously exposing ourselves to a perilous virus with no thought of what it will cost us and our children.

This will mobilize the people of the world to demand that their leaders properly provide safe spaces for us all to prevent us from ever getting infected in the first place.

We need to mandate our governments to access all the mitigating technologies that we have in our roster, not only vaccination. The best way of managing Long COVID is to prevent people getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the first place!

We need national and international indoor clean air acts – to protect us from emerging pathogens.

For people with Long COVID, awareness will bring an educated and mobilized medical profession, governmental resources, financial and sociological support, and money for research — to facilitate treatments and, hopefully, a cure.

These are the main reasons why I jump out of bed in the morning with gusto, focus, and determination, and why I’ve poured all my money and my time into educating people about Long COVID.

Dr. Funmi Okunola is a British Family Physician who lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. She is the President and CEO of Kojala Medical, a digital medical education company behind COVID-19 The Answers and Long COVID The Answers.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week

⚡ - Charging Towards a More Electrifying Future

1. The Kissimmee River has been brought back to life—and wildlife is thriving

The Kissimmee River in Florida was straightened in the 1960s, causing a sharp decline in wildlife and ecological problems. But in the 1990s, a $1 billion restoration project was initiated to restore the river's natural state.

Today, nearly half of the river has been restored, wetlands have been reestablished and rehydrated, and wildlife has returned, including rare and threatened species. Already the biological impact of the project has become clear. As the wetlands have come back, so have the birds.

2. Plastic wrap made from seaweed withstands heat and is compostable

A cling film made from an invasive seaweed can withstand high temperatures yet is still easily compostable. The material could eventually become a sustainable choice for food packaging.

Scientists started with a brown seaweed called sargassum. Sargassum contains long, chain-like molecules similar to those that make up conventional plastic, which made it a good raw material. The researchers mixed it with some acids and salts to get a solution full of these molecules, then blended in chemicals that thickened it and made it more flexible and pliable.

3. An Eagle Who Adopted a Rock Becomes a Real Dad to Orphaned Eaglet

Murphy, a bald eagle that had been showing fatherly instincts, has been sharing an enclosure with an eaglet that survived a fall from a tree during a storm in Ste. Genevieve. Murphy, his rock gone by then, took his role as foster parent seriously. He soon began responding to the chick’s peeps, and protecting it.

And when, as a test, the keepers placed two plates of food in front of the birds — one containing food cut into pieces that the chick could eat by itself, and another with a whole fish that only Murphy could handle — the older bird tore up the fish and fed it to the eaglet.

4. World's largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density

In one of the most significant battery breakthroughs in recent years, the world’s largest battery manufacturer CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year.

“The launch of condensed batteries will usher in an era of universal electrification of sea, land and air transportation, open up more possibilities of the development of the industry, and promote the achieving of the global carbon neutrality goals at an earlier date,” the company said in a presentation at Auto Shanghai on Thursday.

This could be huge. Electric jets and cargo ships become very possible at this point.

5. Cat with '100% fatal' feline coronavirus saved by human Covid-19 medicine

A beloved household cat has made an “astonishing” recovery from a usually fatal illness, thanks to a drug made to treat Covid-19 in humans – and a quick-thinking vet.

Anya​, the 7-year-old birman cat, was suffering from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a “100% fatal” viral infection caused by feline coronavirus. That was, until Auckland vet Dr Habin Choi​ intervened, giving Anya an antiviral used to treat Covid-19 called molnupiravir.

6. Kelp forests capture nearly 5 million tonnes of CO2 annually

Kelp forests provide an estimated value of $500 billion to the world and capture 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from seawater each year. Most of kelp’s economic benefits come from creating habitat for fish and by sequestering nitrogen and phosphorus.

7. Medical Marijuana Improved Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms in 87% of Patients

Medical cannabis (MC) has recently garnered interest as a potential treatment for neurologic diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD). 87% of patients were noted to exhibit an improvement in any PD symptom after starting medical cannabis. Symptoms with the highest incidence of improvement included cramping/dystonia, pain, spasticity, lack of appetite, dyskinesia, and tremor.

----

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog

[pandemic-info]

What Is Long COVID? Understanding the Pandemic’s Mysterious Fallout > News > Yale Medicine

Originally published: April 15, 2024. Updated: June 4, 2024

Just weeks after the first cases of COVID-19 hit U.S. shores, an op-ed appeared in The New York Times titled “We Need to Talk About What Coronavirus Recoveries Look Like: They're a lot more complicated than most people realize.”

...

Unlike most diseases, Long COVID was first described not by doctors, but by the patients themselves. Even the term “Long COVID” was coined by a patient. Dr. Elisa Perego, an honorary research fellow at University College in London, came up with the hashtag #LongCOVID when tweeting about her own experience with the post-COVID syndrome. The term went viral and suddenly social media, and then the media itself, was full of these stories.

Complaints like "I can't seem to concentrate anymore" or "I'm constantly fatigued throughout the day" became increasingly common, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. With nothing abnormal turning up from their many thorough lab tests, patients and their physicians were left feeling helpless and frustrated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined Long COVID as the "continuation or development of new symptoms three months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, with these symptoms lasting for at least two months with no other explanation." This deliberately broad definition reflects the complex nature of this syndrome. We now understand that these symptoms are wide-ranging, including heart palpitations, cough, nausea, fatigue, cognitive impairment (commonly referred to as "brain fog"), and more. Also, many who experience Long COVID following an acute infection face an elevated risk of such medical complications as blood clots and (type 2) diabetes.

In April 2024, an estimated 5.3% of all adults in the United States reported having Long COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data from the CDC suggest that Long COVID disproportionately affects women, and individuals between the ages of 40 and 59 have the highest reported rates of developing this post-acute infection syndrome.

...

Inderjit Singh, MBChB, a YSM assistant professor specializing in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, and director of the Pulmonary Vascular Program, is actively engaged in clinical trials aimed at uncovering the fundamental underpinnings of Long COVID.

...

Through this work, a significant revelation emerged. They observed that patients grappling with Long COVID and facing exercise difficulties were unable to efficiently extract oxygen from their bloodstream during physical exertion. This discovery identifies a specific cause underlying the biological underpinnings of Long COVID.

... Dr. Singh, along with other researchers, is focused on the identification of blood-based markers to assess the severity of Long COVID. For example, a research group, led by Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and director of the Center for Infection & Immunity at YSM, most recently created a new method to classify Long COVID severity with circulating immune markers.

Further investigations conducted by Dr. Singh's team identified distinctive protein signatures in the blood of Long COVID patients, which correlated with the degree of Long COVID severity. Researchers identified two major and distinct blood profiles among the patients. Some of them exhibited blood profiles indicating that excessive inflammation played a prominent role in their condition, while others displayed profiles indicative of impaired metabolism.

...

Researchers currently believe that the impairment of a spectrum of key bodily functions may contribute to these diverse symptoms. These potential mechanisms include compromised immune system function, damage to blood vessels, and direct harm to the brain and nervous system. Importantly, it's likely that most patients experience symptoms arising from multiple underlying causes, which complicates both the diagnosis and treatment of Long COVID.

...

The last word from Lisa Sanders, MD:

I’m the internist who sees patients at Yale New Haven Health’s Multidisciplinary Long COVID Care Center. In our clinic, patients are examined by a variety of specialists to determine the best next steps for these complex patients. Sometimes that entails more testing. Often patients have had extensive testing even before they arrive, and far too often—when all the tests are normal—both doctors and patients worry that their symptoms are “all in their head.”

One of our first tasks is to reassure patients that many parts of Long COVID don’t show up on tests. We don’t know enough about the cause of many of these symptoms to create a test for them. The problem is not with the patient with the symptoms, but of the science surrounding them. If any good can be said to come out of this pandemic, it will be a better understanding of Long COVID and many of the other post-acute infection syndromes that have existed as long as the infections themselves.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hey! Love your blog! I have just gotten back into Sherlock and Granda Holmes as well and I had wondered if you could turn me on to some Sherlock sick fics? Thank you much!

Hi Lovely!

Thank you so much! I'm happy you enjoy your time here!

Ah, I don't really have any Granada Holmes fics I can rec to you, but I have PLENTY of Sick Fics that you will enjoy, I think:

Colds, Fevers, and Flus

Chronic Illness / Pain (MFLs)

Coronavirus / CoVID-19 (MFLs)

Quarantine / Lockdown / Pandemic (MFL’s)

Doctor / Caretaker John

Doctor / Caretaker John Pt. 2

Doctor / Caretaker John Pt. 3

Doctor / Caretaker John Pt. 4

Doctor / Caretaker John Pt. 5

Sherlock is Sick/Hurt (Sherlock Whump)

Sherlock Whump Pt. 2

Sherlock In An Accident

John at the Surgery

John Whump / Sherlock Takes Care of John

John Whump / Sherlock Takes Care of John Pt. 2

John Whump / Sherlock Takes Care of John Pt. 3

John Whump / Sherlock Takes Care of John Pt. 4

John Whump with Guilty Sherlock

Whump With Vengeful / Worried / Panicking Partner

John Has Cancer

Hospital Fics

Hospitals Pt 2

Headaches and Migraines

Hallucinations

Fluffy Recovery Fics

Major Character Death / Heavy Angst

Major Character Death / Heavy Angst Pt 2

Comas

Let me know if these aren't to your liking :)

Thank you again for your kind words and I hope you continue to enjoy your time here!!

[blueiscoool]

Stolen van Gogh Painting Worth Millions Returned in a Ikea Bag

The painting was stolen in March 2020 from the Singer Laren Museum.

A Dutch art detective has helped recover a missing Vincent van Gogh painting that was stolen from the Singer Laren Museum, east of Amsterdam, in March 2020.

The "Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring," painted in 1884, was stolen from the famous Dutch museum in a daring overnight smash-and-grab heist during the coronavirus lockdown.

Dutch art crime detective Arthur Brand, who has spent decades tracking down some of the world's greatest masterpieces, announced on Tuesday he had recovered the stolen masterpiece.

In a video posted on Brand's Instagram, the detective can be seen unwrapping the coveted artwork, holding it up as he poses for the camera.

"So here it is! The Spring Garden by Vincent van Gogh which was stolen three and a half years ago on Van Gogh's birthday from a museum in the Netherlands. We have searched for it for more than three and a half years," he said.

Brand said he was able to recover the famous artwork in "close coordination" with Dutch police, deeming it a "great day for all Van Gogh lovers worldwide."

The painting -- estimated to be worth between about $3.2 million to $6.4 million -- was handed to Brand by an unnamed man in a blue Ikea bag at his Amsterdam home, he said.

"Finally, it's here, it's back," said Brand, announcing he is set to return it today to the Singer Laren Museum director.

The recovery followed the emergence of "proof-of-life" photos of the painting circulating in online Mafia circles in June 2020, three months after the dramatic heist. One of the images showed the multimillion-dollar artwork -- which measures 25-by-57 centimeter -- flanked alongside a copy of The New York Times international edition and a book about a famous art thief.

In April 2021, Dutch police spokesperson Maren Wonder announced in a video statement that a 58-year-old man, named only as Nils M, was arrested in Baarn, Netherlands, on suspicion of stealing paintings by van Gogh and Frans Hals with an accumulative value of £18 million, or about $22.4 million.

"This arrest is an important step in the investigation," Wonder announced at the time. "Both paintings have not yet resurfaced with this arrest. The search continues unabated."

In a statement sent Tuesday, Dutch Police confirmed that the perpetrator was in custody and that the famous painting has been recovered, soon to be ready to be viewed by the public.

"The perpetrator is in custody and the painting is back. We are very happy with that result," said Richard Bronswijk, of the Dutch Police's Art Crime Unit.

"We know hat these types of items are used as collateral within organized crime. Intercepted messages have given us good insight into the criminal trade in these types of valuable objects."

The penalty for stealing a painting is imprisonment of 8 years.

"The search for Frans Hals' painting continued unabated."

By Emma Ogao.

[littlecondo]

Steps

I waited until I got this badge to post about how my mission to increase my steps has been going! I'm pretty proud of it as I generally haven't hit that number of steps since I stopped running (the last time I ran was December 2021!). (Also, spot the wonky months on GC on the year view.)

I flipped back through my daily log notebook and it was mid-July when I started going for intentional walks. I started with coffee walks on different trails around my house but eventually stopped taking the coffee because a) spills

and b) I usually landed up carrying an empty mug around for most of the walk.

I think I've become a "regular" on my route now. I exchange greetings with most people, recognise a lot of the dogs, and get annoyed when the school kids walk four abreast and block the path.

I don't worry about pace. Now that I've settled on a route, I find it takes me anywhere from 38-46 minutes and if I stop to look for herons or chat with a neighbour along the way so be it.

I take my phone with me but I try really hard not to use it for anything. The other day I landed up messaging people while walking and I definitely didn't feel the usual level of good vibes.

I prefer nice consistent daily walks over a day of lots of steps and then a lull in action. Initially I tried to hit my step goal everyday. After several weeks I've realised there's a natural ebb and flow and that's okay.

Finally, I read this article during the pandemic, and I think referred to it during my recovery from covid when I also went on walks, but it's worth a read https://www.outsideonline.com/health/wellness/walking-popularity-comeback-coronavirus/