A self-contradictory City News article
I talked to many people about their Covid infections. Many people told me about their Long Covid. I know one person who had lung fibrosis from an unvaxed case of Covid. Another one had heart problems for five months after a vaxed case of Covid-19. The cardiac problems started right during the infection and persisted, but all that happened long after that person’s vaccine dose.
Many of my readers reported debilitating conditions after their infections. As anonymous people enjoying unfettered conversations, they had no reason to make up stuff. I 100% believe them.
But is Long Covid as widespread as some believe? Take a look at this article.
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A report released Thursday by Canada’s chief science adviser says she considers COVID-19 the “head” of the pandemic but long COVID its “tail” as the illness inflicts significant harm on individuals, their families and potentially the country’s economy.
Dr. Mona Nemer said about 10 to 20 per cent of people with COVID-19 develop long COVID after they have recovered from infection and struggle with a variety of symptoms ranging from high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat to medically undefined symptoms such as chronic fatigue, brain fog, muscle pain and blurred vision.
Canada could face a “mass disabling event” because it’s increasingly clear that COVID-19 raises the risk of several chronic diseases including diabetes and hypertension, Nemer said, adding the number of people afflicted with long COVID may be greater than expected due to the lack of established diagnostic criteria.
The reason for Dr. Nemer’s report seems to be a demand for funding.
In response, the federal government on Thursday announced $29 million in funding for the development of clinical guidelines and the creation of an online network where researchers and clinicians can share information about long COVID with each other and the public.
The article then cites Susie Goulding, a self-styled activist who founded an online support group for “long haulers” and is promoting Long Covid:
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Without solid evidence, I always felt that some people overstate their conditions or misattribute unrelated conditions to Covid. You can occasionally spot those in “Long Covid support groups” like Susie’s.
While I support looking closely (and skeptically) into Long Covid and support money going towards good research (as opposed to the typical “covid junk science”), I cannot help but notice the contradiction in the article:
Long Covid Clinics are Empty and Closing
The second part of the article describes Canadian “Long Covid clinics”:
British Columbia has four clinics, after one closed and merged with another last September, a spokesperson with the Health Ministry said in an emailed response.
However, all the clinics will close on April 1 and shift to a virtual clinic, the ministry said, citing a declining number of referrals.
It said that in May 2021, there were 755 referrals to the clinics but that number dropped to 80 in each of October, November and December 2022.
If Long Covid is a mass disabling event, why did referrals to Long Covid clinics drop from 755 in May 2021 to 80 per month in Oct-Dec 2022?
The answer may be that some self-reported Long Covid is vaccine damage, and people are no longer vaccinating. Here’s the chart of “vaccine doses given” vs. the above-mentioned dates of May 2021 and December 2022:
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Unfortunately, Canada stopped counting Covid cases, so I cannot easily compare the number of “covid cases” for those respective months.
Nevertheless, the drop in real data - the number of referrals to long Covid clinics given by the month — is encouraging. Perhaps Long Covid will be less of a problem in the future, despite the alarms that Dr. Mona Nemer or Susie Goulding are sounding.
Here’s my other post on Long Covid:
Again, while anyone is welcome to disagree in comments, I believe Long Covid to be real - but it is occasionally mixed up with vaccine injuries or is instead a manifestation of the Munchausen syndrome. I hope that all people who feel sick for any reason, will be able to get qualified help.
What do you think?
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