Frontline covid doctor reinfected three times this year —
Dr Claire Taylor @drclairetaylor
1/ I wrote a post 8 weeks ago when I had #COVID19 and it went viral.
8 weeks on and I have Covid AGAIN.
EIGHT weeks between infections.
The 3rd in a year.
March 22, June 22, August 22.
Each infection as grim as the last. Where is the immunity? What is the plan?
2/ How can it be sustainable, sensible, bearable even, to get a virus that floors you in the same way multiple times a year? I have so far been lucky to recover from each one but when does that Iuck run out?
3/ I had no issues continually catching Covid until this year. Until #Omicron
Why would there not be cross immunity if they are all apparently the same variant with different numbers?
I seem to be working my way through them all.
4/ It strikes me as very unusual and very concerning not to retain immunity longer than 8 weeks to a virus I’ve had at least twice before but possibly more (March 2020, pre-testing).
5/ In 14 years of doctoring I have had a couple of viral infections. A couple. Most Docs do not continually come down with infections. Being constantly bombarded with infections for years my immune system has served me well.
6/ Omicron is a different game altogether. It’s highly infectious with multiple forms now. We are approaching winter and all the other viruses. The kids have just gone back to school.
7/ We know Covid increases your risk of a heart attack or stroke or blood clot in the year after having it.
What on earth happens if you get it every couple of months?!
Heart disease after COVID: what the data say
Some studies suggest that the risk of cardiovascular problems, such as a heart attack or stroke, remains high even many months after a SARS-CoV-2 infection clears up. Researchers are starting to pin d…
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02074-3
8/ Houston, we have a problem.
We have a highly infectious virus that can damage blood vessels, it’s spreading freely and where’s the immunity. The normal immunity that has seen doctors through years of treating infections?
9/ We know omicron can evade prior immunity from lots of studies including this one from South Africa.
This phenomenon was not seen with other variants.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn4947
10/ So, we have a problem. And for the first time in this pandemic I’m angry. I’m angry that 3 times this year I’ve had to go through the same horrible feverish illness. To recover and get back to work,only to be knocked sideways with the same thing again.
How many more times?
11/ I hope to goodness someone has a plan because I am out of ideas now short of continuing to shout into the Twitter sphere that none of this is normal, none of this is healthy and none of this is sustainable for a healthy population.
12/ A note on testing. You have to keep testing to get a positive result. One on day 1 is not enough. I suspect many more people have had reinfections this year but not tested daily while unwell.
13/ This study compared lateral flow tests and PCR.
‘LFDs did not give a positive result for 305 (53%) of 574 PCR-positive samples’
They were more likely to be positive towards the end of infection.
thelancet.com/journals/lanre…
14/ So yes, I hope we have a plan that doesn’t involve multiple Covid infections a year and pretending it’s not having a long term effect of our bodies. A plan with decent testing, and trying to get the spread of this virus down to a manageable level.
15/ The story of Covid is not over. It will keep mutating. I am literally begging our leaders to wake up and smell the coffee as we continue to sleep walk into a nightmare.
I am sounding the alarm. 🛎
This is not sustainable long term. End.
Edited to add- to anyone who seems confused about why I keep getting it I SEE COVID PATIENTS day in and day out all winter and all summer. And the government are NOT protecting us.
No time for trolls today.