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I think it is now very possible that the outbreak in DRC will become the most deadly outbreak of Ebola thus far recorded. A nightmare is unfolding in DRC, and a deadly combination of the virus itself, armed conflict, aid cuts, and misinformation is fueling it. news.sky.com/story/ebola-...

'Our ability to smell is linked to brain health, and losing this sense is often one of the first signs of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease'. www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

Hiking from Portbradden to Portballintrae on the North Coast of Northern Ireland earlier today.

Hi Chris - aye, it's easy to mask at the optometrist. I'm lucky that my dentist will mask too (albeit with just a surgical mask), but I wouldn't miss a dental appointment regardless.

Very glad to hear that, Jeannine!

I was recently diagnosed with glaucoma, detected during a routine optometrist appointment. No symptoms. As I have said many times since 2020, attending routine medical screening is vital, regardless of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. This early detection could well have saved my vision.

Anecdotal, of course, but I know so many people now whose personalities have changed in subtle but recognisable ways since 2020. I'm positive this is a multifactorial phenomena - trauma, deeply adversarial politics, high cost of living - but I'm sure another factor is infection.

Hiking Glenariff Valley, Northern Ireland, earlier today.

I was waiting for a train in a major train station in Belfast yesterday, and, to my surprise, I saw a woman walking out of the station wearing a black FFP2 respirator. Seeing people wearing masks here is rare now, but it's telling that my very first thought was, 'she's smart'.

Please consider donating to @nastassjacarnivora.bsky.social 's fundraiser so she can set up her Covid Conscious virtual counselling service. This service would be of immense value!

Thinking of my late father, George Browne, today. Dad passed away in 1999, aged only 59, but the older I get, the more I realise just how much he taught me. I'll see you on the hills again one day, Pop.

With the strong caveat that this is purely anecdotal, I have to say that over the past months it's been increasingly difficult to ignore the sheer number of mistakes people have been making. There's a kind of endemic sloppiness and I think part of it is cognitive dysfunction.

'Today, following the withdrawal of the US funding for disease surveillance and severe funding shortfalls, contact tracing is reaching fewer than *half* of the contacts'. This is a dire and very dangerous situation. Control is collapsing. *my emphasis. news.sky.com/story/ebola-...

Hiking the trail from Dunseverick to Portballintrae earlier today. Northern Ireland is a very beautiful place.

3. Ableism: 'Long Covid only affects people with a certain psychological profile'. FALSE. Underpinning this toxic combination of denial and ableism is fear. If you can't look at the reality of Long Covid head-on, it's because on a deep level that reality terrifies you. /end

2. This is, of course, dangerous nonsense. However, one must ask why certain people and institutions feel the need to advance these erroneous and harmful ideas. The answer is a combination of denial and ableism. Denial: 'Covid was overplayed and is no longer a threat'. FALSE.

1. Remember that any attempt to paint Long Covid as psychogenic in nature deliberately and completely incorrectly biologically decouples SARS-CoV-2 infection from Long Covid. In essence, this rhetoric shifts the causative factor for LC from the virus to the patient's mind.

Remember that the existence of Long Covid and the fact that millions of people worldwide are suffering from it creates an extraordinary dissonance in the minds of a section of the population who wish to believe the falsity that Covid is no longer dangerous, and perhaps never was.

Thanks Cindy - I will admit to waiting for the plane to reach just the right point in the frame!

'...many patients with long COVID are already receiving care but are not being recognized as having the condition'. Exactly. I know so many people with Long Covid who don't know they have LC but they do know they developed a new condition after acute Covid-19. www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/lon...