1/ 11 Covid is a vascular disease . We need to stop thinking of it primarily as a lung disease. I hear lung Doctors says ‘we don’t see much on the chest X-rays in #longcovid’. The rheumatologists say ‘we don’t see raised inflammation on the blood tests in #longcovid’

2/ the cardiologists say ‘we don’t see much myocarditis in #LongCovid and when we do it’s mild’. The GPs say ‘ we see lots of odd chest pain after Covid but we don’t really know what it is’.

3/ the media say ‘Covid is mild, long Covid is a mystery and we don’t know what causes it or how to treat it’.

4/ I say- Covid is a virus that causes vascular damage and inflammation. I say the ‘odd chest pain’ is not a mystery and neither is #LongCovid

5/ why do I say that? We now know that the blood tests we do in the NHS only show a tiny % of the immune system. We are testing the wrong markers. In studies Interleukins and cytokines ARE raised. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(22)00127-8/fulltext #Covid_19 causes inflammation. No mystery.

6/ Now to more exciting stuff. Covid causes micro clots with amyloid. Yes amyloid. They block capillaries and reduce oxygenation. Here is a photo of a patient’s blood before Covid and afterwards when they got #LongCovid showing new microclots https://cardiab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12933-021-01359-7

7/ Covid is a vascular disease. If you want to learn more this is a brilliant paper. https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article/479/4/537/230829/A-central-role-for-amyloid-fibrin-microclots-in @dbkell @resiapretorius

8/ why is it not on the front pages of the newspapers? Why hasn’t our health secretary mentioned it? Why doesn’t your Doctor know about it? Why don’t they know that ‘normal’ bloods in Covid don’t test the whole immune system and for microclots? These would be good questions

9/ #LongCovid is a post viral illness. Therefore it has not surprised me today to see the pre-print showing the same microclots in #MECFS https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1727226/v1 This will not show up in blood tests done currently for #MECFS or #LongCovid resulting in ‘but your bloods are normal’

10/ Hopefully this thread might convince you Covid is more than a cold. That Covid causes vascular complications.That doing the usual tests won’t show you the problem. That when you apply cutting edge science to medicine you find answers. #MedTwitter #LongCovid #MECFS #TeamClots

11/11 ‘Medical science has proven time and again that when the resources are provided, great progress in the treatment, cure, and prevention of disease can occur.’
Michael J. Fox