There have been numerous posts on social media from parents aghast at the revolving door of school and nursery acquired illness. Sometimes there’ll be a parent posting who has children with a wide age gap saying it’s worse now. 🧵

Post exertional malaise (PEM) is the hallmark symptom of #MECFS It’s not fatigue following activity. It is a dramatic deterioration and worsening of symptoms. Short video explainer - triggers, symptoms, and management. Repost for the last day of #MEAwarenessMonth

I've been sorting through my late Mum's items; paperwork, photos and stuff and I came across this booklet from mid 1960s issued by the British Medical Association @TheBMA called 'Doctors Orders'. I wondered if it had advice on air quality & links to disease transmission. 1/🧵

I’m not sure how much more evidence is required to finally update infection protection and control guidance, but here’s hoping…

But it wasn’t just the “initial guidance” that was flawed! To this very day, the IPC guidance STILL does not reflect the latest science on AIRBORNE transmission.

This resonates and I’m ‘only’ four years in.

Each year more and more people enter our world in the shadows. Each year the list of lives we have lost grows longer. Today there will probably be a lot of new faces raising awareness with sort of the same spirit many of us had in the early days.

I’d really like to become a little less aware. I find myself not really having much to say today. #LongCovidAwarenessDay. Six years in, it feels like we’re still having to repeat the same things over and over, with little tangible change in day to day to life for most of us. 🧵

Today, on Long Covid awareness day I’d like to call out the prejudice delivered against long covid kids. My daughter is severely impaired by long Covid. She is attached to tubes 21 hours a day to keep her alive, and has 3x stomas as well as a permanent line into her heart for iv fluids. She has encountered sepsis repeatedly, all manner of acute life threatening secondary issues due to her condition, and is malnourished. She spends much of her time in hospitals. She missed 3 years of schooling, but this year is attempting to do (with very minimal support from her teacher) Grade 12 English. She zooms into classes from the adult oncology ward she’s housed in. She reschedules treatments around lesson times to try and make them. But, she is acutely unwell and often this is impossible. That she even continues with education is remarkable. But, she loves learning and in spite of all she suffers, she is performing very well. This is the comment from her English teacher. Imagine this being said about a child in these health circumstances with ANY other illness……. #longcovidkids #LongCovidAwareness #longcovid

Thousands upon thousands of studies. Thousands upon thousands of anecdotes. Millions and millions of people with long covid. £billions to economies. Together, it’s like Italy sending alarms early in the pandemic to a shrugging Johnson as the toll keeps climbing.

Seeing this clip has melted my brain.

What is the roadblock to clean, indoor air? Why are politicians & PH so allergic to the idea of this? “Measles, flu, COVID-19, norovirus—most infectious diseases spread through the air we breathe. We just accept that everyone gets sick indoors. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.”

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @CovidBereaved Cymru Sam Smith-Higgins 👏👏👏 The need for better air quality in healthcare to protect everyone. Recognition for CVF💙💜💗 "It's a point Mr @AdamWagner1 has beeen making ever since I started this inquiry" 1/

120 people a week catch covid in hospitals in Wales. They’re just the ones we know about, the ones they bother to test

Clinically Vulnerable Families want safe environments. To quote @lara_wong from last week: "When it is safe enough for the most vulnerable, it is safe enough for everyone." Sam explains that even bereaved wouldn't adhere to 'restrictions' in another pandemic. 4/

-The Silence After I Said It- Today a member asked me in front of the entire room at my workplace why I no longer teach many exercise classes. She remembered when I taught more. I told them the truth. Covid destroyed my health years ago. I have suffered without end since and just survived heart surgery. The room froze. Could hear a pin drop. These people stared at the athletic woman in her 30s as if my story was the most horrifying thing they had ever heard. Some stared in disbelief as if they refused to accept what I said was true. And others looked like they wished I hadn’t said it at all. The world collectively decided that young, athletic women are not allowed to be permanently altered by Covid. So when one of us says it out loud it feels like the kind of ending the story had no place for. That silence in the room was denial colliding with reality. They didn’t ask anything else.

Covid in Scotland 'Proportions of hospital admissions by age due to COVID-19, week 40 2023 to week 7 2026' Something unusual is happening to the age distribution of Covid hospital admissions in Scotland. In Week 07 2026 children aged ≤14 were 52.6% of all COVID-19 admissions:

This ⬇️ is a must-read thread from @1goodtern. The sickness trends are VERY worrying. Importantly: ▪️The charts are for newly-qualified doctors. Aging population is not playing a role. ▪️These are sickness rates per 100k so account for changing numbers of NHS staff over time.

Chronic illness teaches you how to operate at “fine enough.” Not well. Not healthy. Just functional enough to get through the day. From the outside, that often gets mistaken for being okay. And that misunderstanding affects how people respond to us.

If they’re genuinely concerned about missed learning and missed work for parents, why haven’t we got clean air in schools? That would reduce ALL airborne diseases in kids and in the wider community.

All clean indoor air advocates are welcome to sign. You don’t need to be based in Canada 🍁 #unity #children