Is long Covid all in the mind?

The study looked at 3,193 people – mostly women – who reported Covid symptoms continuing four weeks after first falling ill. They found that those reporting long Covid were more likely to have already experienced a range of symptoms including ‘depression, anxiety, worry about Covid, loneliness and stress’ before they tested positive. The risk increased between 1.3 and 1.5 fold. Scientists say this shows an association between prior mental health conditions and symptoms of Covid that last for more than four weeks. They were keen to stress that this only means mental health may be a risk factor, not that it is one.

…British researchers writing this June in the journal Nature found an increase in the odds of developing long Covid in people who already had anxiety and depression. That study of 6,907 Covid sufferers also found age, being female, white or obese were factors in longer-lasting virus symptoms. Women had a 50 per cent higher chance of developing these symptoms than men. It also found less-educated people were significantly less likely to have symptoms for more than three months. (Emphasis mine – Ed)

I’ve given up trying to figure out whether the U.K. Spectator lets you read a few articles if you’re not subscribed or none or what. Anyway this article reinforces certain… suspicions.

(I’m pretty sure Lyme Disease is really real BTW. However, there is a type…)

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Boris Johnson under fire over No 10 lockdown Christmas parties

Boris Johnson says no Covid rules were broken after reports Christmas parties were held in Downing Street at the height of last year’s lockdown.

The BBC has spoken to a source who attended a Downing Street gathering on 18 December, as first reported in the Mirror newspaper.

They said “several dozen” people were at the event, where party games were played and food and drink served.

The PM did not deny parties were held but said “all guidance was followed”.

The source at the 18 December gathering said it had gone on past midnight, and that the “mood was down”, with concern building about the new Kent variant of coronavirus.

…London was placed under Tier 3 lockdown restrictions on 14 December last year, after which time people were not allowed to mix indoors with anyone outside their household or support bubble.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of hypocrisy for flouting the rules he had ordered the rest of the country to follow.

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So let’s all listen to Bill Maher

I’ve never been able to stand Bill Maher and I hate finding myself in agreement with him but he’s right and here we are.

“I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic…”

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This wasn’t the question I was planning on asking, but Dr. Shahab, are you okay?

I’m posting this to see if anyone agrees with me that we are now living in what Bertie Wooster might have described as a different and dreadful world.

Everyone is a hysteric now. It’s all psychodrama. Yes, doctor, since you bring it up, you are behaving very unprofessionally. No, the fact that some pet journalist has given you the cue to start blubbering on TV does not mean that I want you running my life and everyone else’s until the end of time.

I’m not falling for the puppy trick either.

Mark Steyn keeps saying that we may be, civilization-wise, too stupid to survive. I hope he’s wrong. Convince me.

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Covid professor claims social distancing should remain ‘forever’

Professor Michie, whose first husband was Andrew Murray, once a key adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, has been a common sight on TV during the crisis.

She is a member of the Communist Party of Britain and is said to be dedicated to establishing a new socialist order in the country.

She is also a member of The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), a body which advises the British government. She is of course a psychologist.

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It’s Just Money

Cases in point:

A federal climate bureau spent more than $600 million last year, says an internal audit. Spending did not include $800,000 in annual staff time to manage newly-detailed carbon offset regulations: “Doing nothing is not an option.”

**

The $675 million Public Health Agency “lacked everything” despite assuring legislators it was prepared for the pandemic, a Liberal-appointed lawmaker told the Senate national finance committee. “I was told twice, not just once but twice, you had enough resources on hand to deal with the pandemic,” said Senator Éric Forest (Que.): ‘There was a huge gap between the perception and the reality.’

**

The Liberal government will not release a budget in March as it takes more time to assess the impact of the pandemic, meaning that more than two years will have passed since the last federal budget was released.

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From the Most Opaque Government Ever Re-Elected

There was apparently nothing wrong with how the Trudeau government handled the pandemic according to e-mails that the Liberals wanted no one to see:

The Department of Public Works in self-congratulatory internal emails said it was “very proud” of doing a great job on pandemic management, “a great story for us.” The messages were exchanged as Covid deaths nationwide approached 9,000: “We’re everybody’s government!”

 

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The Good Lord help me, I am now Holden Caulfield. (Don’t read this, it’s just me whining. TLDR.)

The Good Lord help me, I am now Holden Caulfield. (Don’t read this, it’s just me whining. TLDR.)

It’s been a horrible year, basically, for everyone. Obviously some more than others. I get that. And I can’t even look out of the window without seeing some idiot walking down an abandoned street wearing a muzzle. I live opposite a school. Some parents are making their tiny children wear them. “What a great childhood! I remember having cloth over half my face most of the time.”

This is Nova Scotia. We’re not exactly Covid central.

I spent most of the summer in bed (something else, I think/hope I’m fine now) and the experience seems to have rendered me a bit morbid. I am now, without exaggeration, convinced that if Justin (Totally Not Fidel Castro’s Son) said that cars should start “social distancing” because maybe they breathe or something half these people would be doing that exact thing an hour later. Because Science!

I hit a wall two days ago when I staggered out of bed a bit hungover in a bad mood and found this in the dining room.

My mother subscribes. Whether she pays or not I don’t have the calories to investigate.

I didn’t make it past page one, although I have perused this mag before. I mean, they have a regular contributor priest called Something MacDonald who has a beard and is slightly whiter than Fauxcahontas Warren (which is saying something) and is pretending to be Indian. Because it’s usually “Native Native First Nations Native” with these guys, except when it’s “Black Black Black”.

I thought Anglicanism was supposed to be a religion.

Just look at this thing.

What gets me is that everyone involved, by which I mean the subjects, the writers, the editors, the publishers, the subscribers, every single person except possibly the postman is completely full of it. There’s a South African priest whose profile is headlined ‘We can name the evil that is racism’. How trailblazing. How original. Gosh, I bet they all stood up and applauded at your courage! I wonder if he can do anything else. Other than denounce Israel (can’t be bothered to look it up but I assume). And then there’s some chick who claims that she “…still remembers conversations from a church she attended years ago. The congregation constantly associated whiteness with purity and goodness, and darkness with evil. They talked about people being “washed white” from the blackness of sin.” Apparently this was “hurting me, it is damaging to my soul.”

If that’s true then she’s a mental case, and if it’s not true (which would be my guess) she’s a liar and a talentless drama-queen. Or, best case scenario, a good con artist. But I’m basically cool with her. I don’t have too many talents myself. It’s the ageing “Anglican” or “United” or whichever denomination creeps who listen to her speeches and congratulate themselves on how wonderfully un-racist and woke etc. they are who make me sick. She’s a pet to them. She’s miss “Blackity-black-black-black” who massages their ridiculous egos. Has she mentioned in the last 20 seconds that she’s black?

I hope so. Otherwise, what’s the point of her to these low IQ egomaniacs pretending to be religious leaders?

I remember P.J. O’Rourke – not, recently, a hero of mine – writing years ago that he was in the Philippines, listening to the state broadcaster, and palpably, physically felt that he couldn’t get “the hum of bullshit” out of his ear. That’s how I feel now.

I’m willing to believe that none of these people are exactly geniuses, but some of them have to be human enough to have some glimmer of self-awareness. Yet they do this anyway. Bastards.

 

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I’m Sure It’s Nothing to Be Concerned About

Japan plans to collect data from people who become infected with the novel coronavirus even after they receive vaccinations to assess how vaccines may help prevent the spread of the virus, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

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Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found.

The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

“Unlike normal economic circumstances, this pandemic disproportionately affects the psychological health of children, adolescents and females (especially housewives),” the authors wrote in the study published on Friday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

The early decline in suicides was affected by such factors as government subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure, the study found.

But the decline reversed — with the suicide rate jumping 37% for women, about five times the increase among men — as the prolonged pandemic hurt industries where women predominate, increasing the burden on working mothers, while domestic violence increased, the report said.

The study, based on health ministry data from November 2016 to last October, found the child suicide rate spiked 49% in the second wave, corresponding to the period after a nationwide school closure.

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The death of a Montreal Inuit man is being investigated after his body was discovered in a portable toilet just 25 metres from the homeless shelter he used to frequent.

The La Porte Ouvert shelter, which translates literally to “the Open Door shelter,” normally operates 24 hours a day, but was closed due to “plumbing problems and a major COVID-19 outbreak,” reports CBC Radio-Canada.

**

China’s economy exceeded its pre-pandemic growth rates in the fourth quarter, propelling it to a stronger-than-expected expansion of 2.3% for the full year and making it the only major one to avoid contraction in 2020.

Gross domestic product climbed 6.5% in the final quarter from a year earlier, fueled by industrial output, the statistics bureau said Monday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted 6.2% growth for the quarter and 2.1% for the full year.

“China has more than returned to trend growth,” said Raymond Yeung, chief economist for Greater China at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. The strong rebound means authorities can “prioritize structural reforms rather than economic reflation” in 2021, he said.

 

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Covid tyranny in Scotland

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