How Science Lost the Public's Trust

 
"'Science" has become a political catchword. "I believe in science," Joe Biden tweeted six days before he was elected president. "Donald Trump doesn't. It's that simple, folks."
But what does it mean to believe in science? The British science writer Matt Ridley draws a pointed distinction between "science as a philosophy" and "science as an institution." The former grows out of the Enlightenment, which Mr. Ridley defines as "the primacy of rational and objective reasoning." The latter, like all human institutions, is erratic, prone to falling well short of its stated principles. Mr. Ridley says the Covid pandemic has "thrown into sharp relief the disconnect between science as a philosophy and science as an institution."
Mr. Ridley, 63, describes himself as a "science critic, which is a profession that doesn't really exist." He likens his vocation to that of an art critic and dismisses most other science writers as "cheerleaders." That somewhat lofty attitude seems fitting for a hereditary English peer. As the fifth Viscount Ridley, he's a member of Britain's House of Lords, and he Zooms with me from his ancestral seat in Northumberland, just south of Scotland, in between sessions of Parliament (which he also attends by Zoom).
At Oxford nearly 40 years ago, Mr. Ridley studied the mating patterns of pheasants. His fieldwork involved much crouching in long country grass to figure out why these "jolly interesting" birds are polygamous -- unlike most other avians. With the Canadian molecular biologist Alina Chan, he's finishing a book called "Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19," to be published in November.
It will likely make its authors unwelcome in China. As Mr. Ridley worked on the book, he says, it became "horribly clear" that Chinese scientists are "not free to explain and reveal everything they've been doing with bat viruses." That information has to be "dug out" by outsiders like him and Ms. Chan. The Chinese authorities, he says, ordered all scientists to send their results relevant to the virus for approval by the government before other scientists or international agencies could vet them: "That is shocking in the aftermath of a lethal pandemic that has killed millions and devastated the world."
Mr. Ridley notes that the question of Covid's origin has "mostly been tackled by people outside the mainstream scientific establishment." People inside not only have been "disappointingly incurious" but have tried to shut down the inquiry "to protect the reputation of science as an institution." The most obvious reason for this resistance: If Covid leaked from a lab, and especially if it developed there, "science finds itself in the dock."
Other factors have been at play as well. Scientists are as sensitive as other elites to charges of racism, which the Communist Party used to evade questions about specifically Chinese practices "such as the trade in wildlife for food or lab experiments on bat coronaviruses in the city of Wuhan."
Scientists are a global guild, and the Western scientific community has "come to have a close relationship with, and even a reliance on, China." Scientific journals derive considerable "income and input" from China, and Western universities rely on Chinese students and researchers for tuition revenue and manpower. All that, Mr. Ridley says, "may have to change in the wake of the pandemic."
In the U.K., he has also noted "a tendency to admire authoritarian China among scientists that surprised some people." It didn't surprise Mr. Ridley. "I've noticed for years," he says, "that scientists take a somewhat top-down view of the political world, which is odd if you think about how beautifully bottom-up the evolutionary view of the natural world is."
He asks: "If you think biological complexity can come about through unplanned emergence and not need an intelligent designer, then why would you think human society needs an 'intelligent government'?" Science as an institution has "a naive belief that if only scientists were in charge, they would run the world well." Perhaps that's what politicians mean when they declare that they "believe in science." As we've seen during the pandemic, science can be a source of power.
But there's a "tension between scientists wanting to present a unified and authoritative voice," on the one hand, and science-as-philosophy, which is obligated to "remain open-minded and be prepared to change its mind." Mr. Ridley fears "that the pandemic has, for the first time, seriously politicized epidemiology." It's partly "the fault of outside commentators" who hustle scientists in political directions. "I think it's also the fault of epidemiologists themselves, deliberately publishing things that fit with their political prejudices or ignoring things that don't."
Epidemiologists are divided between those who want more lockdowns and those who think that approach wasn't effective and might have been counterproductive. Mr. Ridley sides with the latter camp, and he's dismissive of the alarmist modeling that led to lockdowns in the first place. "The modeling of where the pandemic might go," he says, "presents itself as an entirely apolitical project. But there have been too many cases of epidemiologists presenting models based on rather extreme assumption."
One motivation: Pessimism sells. "You don't get blamed for being too pessimistic, but you do get attention. It's like climate science. Modeled forecasts of a future that is scary is much more likely to get you on television." Mr. Ridley invokes Michael Crichton, the late science-fiction novelist, who hated the tendency to describe the outcomes of models in words that imply they are the "results" of an experiment. That frames speculation as if it were proof.
Climate science is already far down the road to politicization. "Twenty or 30 years ago," Mr. Ridley says, "you could study how the ice ages happened and discuss competing theories without being at all political about it." Now it's very hard to have a conversation on the subject "without people trying to interpret it through a political lens."
Mr. Ridley describes himself as "lukewarm" on climate change. He accepts that humans have made the climate warmer, but doesn't subscribe to any of the catastrophist views that call for radical changes in human behavior and consumption. His nuanced position hasn't protected him from attack, of course, and the British left is prone to vilify him as a "denier."
Climate science has also been "infected by cultural relativism and postmodernism," Mr. Ridley says. He cites a paper that was critical of glaciology -- the study of glaciers -- "because it wasn't sufficiently feminist." I wonder if he's kidding, but Google confirms he isn't. In 2016 Progress in Human Geography published "Glaciers, gender, and science: A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research."
The politicization of science leads to a loss of confidence in science as an institution. The distrust may be justified but leaves a vacuum, often filled by a "much more superstitious approach to knowledge." To such superstition Mr. Ridley attributes public resistance to technologies such as genetically modified food, nuclear power -- and vaccines.
If you spurn Covid-19 vaccination, Mr. Ridley says he would "fervently argue" that it is "the lesser of two risks, at least for adults." We have "ample data to show that -- for this vaccine, and for others, going back centuries." He calls vaccination "probably the most massive and incredible benefit of scientific knowledge." Yet it's "counterintuitive and difficult to understand," which may explain why its advocates have been vilified through the centuries.
He cites the example of Mary Wortley Montagu, a British aristocrat, who pushed for smallpox inoculation in Britain after witnessing its administration in Ottoman Turkey in the early 18th century. She was viciously pilloried, he says, as was Zabdiel Boylston, a celebrated Boston doctor who inoculated residents against smallpox during a smallpox outbreak in 1721.
Vaccines have been central to the question of "misinformation" and the White House's pressure campaign against social media to censor it. Mr. Ridley worries about the opposite problem: that social media "is complicit in enforcing conformity." It does this "through 'fact checking,' mob pile-ons, and direct censorship, now explicitly at the behest of the Biden administration." He points out that Facebook and Wikipedia long banned any mention of the possibility that the virus leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.
"Conformity," Mr. Ridley says, "is the enemy of scientific progress, which depends on disagreement and challenge. Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts, as [the physicist Richard] Feynman put it." Mr. Ridley reserves his bluntest criticism for "science as a profession," which he says has become "rather off-puttingly arrogant and political, permeated by motivated reasoning and confirmation bias." Increasing numbers of scientists "seem to fall prey to groupthink, and the process of peer-reviewing and publishing allows dogmatic gate-keeping to get in the way of new ideas and open-minded challenge."
The World Health Organization is a particular offender: "We had a dozen Western scientists go to China in February and team up with a dozen Chinese scientists under the auspices of the WHO." At a subsequent press conference they pronounced the lab-leak theory "extremely unlikely." The organization also ignored Taiwanese cries for help with Covid-19 in January 2020. "The Taiwanese said, 'We're picking up signs that this is a human-to-human transmission that threatens a major epidemic. Please, will you investigate?' And the WHO basically said, 'You're from Taiwan. We're not allowed to talk to you.'"
He notes that WHO's primary task is forestalling pandemics. Yet in 2015 it "put out a statement saying that the greatest threat to human health in the 21st century is climate change. Now that, to me, suggests an organization not focused on the day job."
In Mr. Ridley's view, the scientific establishment has always had a tendency "to turn into a church, enforcing obedience to the latest dogma and expelling heretics and blasphemers." This tendency was previously kept in check by the fragmented nature of the scientific enterprise: Prof. A at one university built his career by saying that Prof. B's ideas somewhere else were wrong. In the age of social media, however, "the space for heterodoxy is evaporating." So those who believe in science as philosophy are increasingly estranged from science as an institution. It's sure to be a costly divorce." [1]

1. The Weekend Interview with Matt Ridley: How Science Lost the Public's Trust
Varadarajan, Tunku. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]24 July 2021: A.11.

Pasaulio naujienos: Izraelio duomenys rodo, kad Pfizer-Biontech vakcina yra mažiau efektyvi prieš „Delta“ variantą

„TEL AVIV - Izraelio duomenys rodo, kad „Pfizer Inc.“ vakcina pastarosiomis savaitėmis tapo ne tokia veiksminga, siekiant užkirsti kelią „Covid-19“ infekcijai, nors tai tebėra tvirtas ginklas prieš sunkias ligas, nes viso pasaulio vyriausybės kovoja su atsaku į plitimą naujo „Delta“ varianto. 

Išvados, kurios yra preliminarios ir pagrįstos nedideliu mėginiu, rodo, kad po dviejų injekcijų vakcina veiksmingai sumažino infekcijos riziką ir 40% - simptominės ligos riziką laikotarpiu, kai dominavo „Delta“ variantas. Vakcina 91% veiksmingai užkirto kelią sunkioms ligoms tuo pačiu laikotarpiu nuo birželio 20 iki liepos 17 dienos, pranešė ministerija. „Svarbu pasakyti, kad apsaugant nuo sunkių ligų, hospitalizavimo ir mirties, „Pfizer“ vakcina vis dar yra labai efektyvi“, - sakė Nadav Davidovitch, Izraelio vyriausybės ekspertų patariamosios grupės dėl koronaviruso narys. "Mes vis dar nesame tikri, ar efektyvumas sumažėjo dėl praėjusio laiko, ar dėl varianto klausimo". 

 Ponas Davidovičius teigė, kad duomenys buvo pagrįsti šimtais atvejų ir turėtų būti laikomi tik preliminariais. „Pfizer“ teigė, kad bendrovė ir jos partneris „BioNTech SE“ yra įsitikinę dviejų dozių vakcinos, kuri, anot jos, apsaugo nuo sunkių ligų ir hospitalizavimo, apsauga ir saugumu. Dvi dozės ir toliau yra „labai veiksmingos užkertant kelią Covid-19, įskaitant variantus, ir iki šiol nė vienas variantas, įskaitant„ Delta “, neišvengė vakcinos apsaugos“, - sakė Pfizer. Emory universiteto Biostatistikos ir bioinformatikos katedros docentė Natalie Dean teigė, kad nėra pakankamai daug duomenų, kad būtų galima padaryti tvirtas tyrimo išvadas. Laikas nuo skiepų sausio mėnesį nėra labai ilgas, todėl tokį didelį kritimą reikėtų pakartoti, sakė dr. Dean. "Tai tiesiog toks ryškus skirtumas ir visada, kai jis toks, visada norisi pamatyti kokį nors kitą patikrinimą." Tyrimo metu gali būti ribotos galimybės užtikrinti, kad vakcinuotos grupės būtų lyginamos su panašiais neskiepytais žmonėmis, sakė ji. Nors tyrimo tyrėjai atsižvelgia į žmonių amžių, lytį ir laiką, neatsižvelgiama į tokius veiksnius kaip profesija, vieta. 

 Izraelis panaudojo „Pfizer“ vakciną, kad surengtų pirmaujančią skiepų kampaniją visame pasaulyje ir parodė, kaip vyriausybės galėtų kovoti su pandemija. Nauji Izraelio duomenys greičiausiai paskatins diskusijas apie tai, kaip greitai vakcinos praranda potenciją ir ar vyriausybės turėtų pradėti administruoti stiprintuvus. Anksčiau liepą Izraelis pradėjo siūlyti trečią dozę asmenims, kurių imuninė sistema yra susilpnėjusi, o sveikatos apsaugos pareigūnai tiria, ar ji reikalinga platesniam gyventojų skaičiui. Izraelio sveikatos ministerija teigė, kad apskaičiuoja vakcinos veiksmingumą, analizuodama paskiepytų infekcijų skaičių, palyginti su tomis, kurios nebuvo paskiepytos per tam tikrą laikotarpį. Taip pat atsižvelgiama į tokius veiksnius kaip infekcijos savaitė ir amžius bei tai, ar asmuo buvo užsikrėtęs praeityje. 

Ministerijos teigimu, naujausi duomenys gali būti šališki dėl to, kur buvo atlikti koronaviruso tyrimai. Daugelis jų buvo atliekami protrūkių vietose ir tarp pagyvenusių žmonių, o tarp vakcinuotų jaunesnių žmonių atlikta tik nedidelė dalis tyrimų. Pirmieji buvo paskiepyti vyresni izraeliečiai; daugelis buvo visiškai paskiepyti iki sausio pabaigos ir šiuo metu sudaro didžiąją dalį sunkių ligų atvejų. Nauji Izraelio duomenys rodo, kad „Pfizer“ skiepo stiprumas yra mažesnis, nei buvo nustatyta kitoje didelėje JK studijoje, paskelbtoje šią savaitę. Tyrimas, paskelbtas „New England Journal of Medicine“ ir remiamas visuomenės sveikatos Anglijos, dalyvavo beveik 20 000 žmonių ir teigė, kad vakcina 88% veiksmingai apsaugo nuo simptominių ligų“ [1]. 

Turint omeny, kad daugelis lengvai sergančių Covid jaunų žmonių gauna ilgalaikį Covid, mažėjantis vakcinų veiksmingumas yra bloga naujiena tiems jauniems žmonėms. Reikia grįžti prie kaukių nešiojimo patalpose, kur daug pašalinių.

1. World News: Israel Data Suggest Shot Less Effective
Jones, Rory; Lieber, Dov. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]24 July 2021: A.8.

World News: Israel Data Suggest Shot Less Effective

"TEL AVIV -- Data from Israel suggests Pfizer Inc.'s vaccine has become less effective in preventing infection of Covid-19 in recent weeks, although it remains a robust bulwark against serious illness as governments around the world scramble to respond to the spread of a new Delta variant.

The findings, which are preliminary and based on a small sample, suggest that after two shots the vaccine was 39% effective at reducing the risk of infection and 40% effective at reducing the risk of symptomatic disease during a period when the Delta variant dominated cases in Israel, according to the country's Health Ministry. The vaccine was 91% effective at preventing severe illness in the same period between June 20 and July 17, the ministry said.

"It's important to say that in terms of protecting against severe illness, hospitalization and death, the Pfizer vaccine is still very very efficient," said Nadav Davidovitch, a member of the expert advisory panel to the Israeli government on the coronavirus. "We are still not sure about whether the reduction in effectiveness is due to time passed or [a] question of the variant."

Mr. Davidovitch said the data was based on hundreds of cases and should only be considered preliminary.

Pfizer said the company and its partner BioNTech SE are confident in the protection and safety of the two-dose vaccine, which it said prevents severe disease and hospitalizations. Two doses continue "to be highly efficacious in preventing Covid-19, including variants and to date, no variant, including Delta, appears to have escaped the protection of the vaccine," Pfizer said.

Natalie Dean, an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Emory University, said not enough is known to draw firm conclusions from the study. The time from vaccinations in January is not very long, and such a major drop would need to be replicated, Dr. Dean said. "It's just such a striking difference and whenever it's like that you always want to see some other verification."

The study may be limited in its ability to ensure the vaccinated groups are compared with similar unvaccinated people, she said. While the study's investigators consider people's ages, sex and time, factors such as occupation, location and whether they live in congregate settings aren't accounted for.

Israel used the Pfizer vaccine to conduct a world-leading campaign that offered glimpses of how governments might combat the pandemic.

The new Israeli data is likely to fuel debate about how soon vaccines lose potency and whether governments should begin administering boosters. Earlier in July, Israel began offering a third dose to immunocompromised individuals, and health officials are studying whether one is necessary for the wider population.

The Israeli Health Ministry has said it calculates the effectiveness of a vaccine by analyzing the number of infections among the vaccinated compared with those who were unvaccinated in the given period. It also accounts for factors such as the week of infection and age, and whether the person was infected in the past.

The ministry said the latest data might be biased because of where coronavirus tests were conducted. Many were carried out in areas of outbreaks and among the elderly, and only a small number of tests were conducted among younger people who were vaccinated. Older Israelis were the first to be vaccinated; many were fully inoculated by the end of January and currently make up the most of cases of severe illness.

Israel's new data suggests a lower potency for the Pfizer shot than was found by another major U.K. study published this week. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine and sponsored by Public Health England, the study involved nearly 20,000 people and said the vaccine was 88% effective at protecting against symptomatic disease." [1]

Given that many young people with mild illness of  Covid receive long-term Covid, the declining effectiveness of the vaccines is bad news for those young people. We need to go back to wearing masks indoors where there are a lot of outsiders.

1. World News: Israel Data Suggest Shot Less Effective
Jones, Rory; Lieber, Dov. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]24 July 2021: A.8.

Mokslininkai tiria ilgalaikio Covid paslaptį

  „Kai vakcinos sumažina sunkių ligų ir mirties grėsmę nuo „Covid-19“, milijonams žmonių išlieka rizika susirgti daugybe mažiau rimtų, bet galinčių sekinti ilgalaikių šios ligos simptomų, kuriuos mokslininkai vadina ilguoju Covid. 

Daugelis pažeidžiamiausių yra tarp jaunesnių nevakcinuotų žmonių, kurie nėra apsaugoti nuo greitai plintančio koronaviruso Delta varianto, kuris dabar atsako už daugiau nei 80% augančių Amerikos atvejų. 

Ekspertų teigimu, ilgalaikis Covid - tai terminas, reiškiantis simptomus, kurie tęsiasi kelias savaites ar mėnesius po infekcijos, aptinkamus pas nuo 10 iki 30% žmonių, kurie užsikrečia virusu, įskaitant tuos, kurie serga lengvomis ar besimptomėmis infekcijomis. 

Kai kuriais atvejais simptomai išlieka ilgiau nei metus. 

„Net jei tai ir nėra taip ryšku, kaip mirštantys žmonės, jūs ignoruojate tai be reikalo“, - sakė  Altmannas, Londono imperatoriškojo koledžo imunologijos profesorius. "Kalbant apie sveikatos priežiūros naštą ar sveikatos priežiūros išlaidas, mes matome, kad tai mums būtų tokia pat didelė problema kaip reumatoidinis artritas, didžiausia autoimuninė liga pasaulyje". Daugelis amerikiečių lieka neskiepyti arba skiepijami tik iš dalies. Ligos, kylančios, kai valstybės sušvelnina apribojimus ir plinta labai perduodamas „Delta“ variantas. Dėl padidėjusio vakcinacijos tarp seniausių ir pažeidžiamiausių žmonių šis padidėjimas nesukels tiek rimtų ligų ar mirties, kiek buvo ankstesnėse bangose. Tačiau tai gali sukelti dešimtis tūkstančių naujų ilgo Covido atvejų. „Ilgalaikis Covid yra tikras“, - sakė Priya Duggal, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg visuomenės sveikatos mokyklos epidemiologijos profesorė. "Dabar turime visą grupę asmenų, išgyvenusių Covidą, kurie patenka į lėtinę [ilgalaikę] būseną, kuri, greičiausiai, bus su mumis tikrai ilgai". 

Šio klausimo mastas paskatino vyriausybes skirti dideles sumas ilgojo Covido tyrimams. Nacionaliniai sveikatos institutai per ketverius metus skyrė 1,15 milijardo dolerių, kad ištirtų būklę, o JK kolega kol kas skyrė beveik 54 milijonus dolerių tyrimams, tyrinėjantiems priežastis, diagnostinius metodus ir galimą gydymą. Ilgalaikis Covid siejamas su gluminančiu galimų simptomų rinkiniu; Londono universiteto koledžo mokslininkų atlikta naujausia žmonių apklausa, kurios metu buvo patvirtintas ar įtariamas ilgas Covid, nustatė daugiau, nei 200, apimančių 

 regėjimo haliucinacijas, 

širdies plakimą ir 

atminties praradimą. 

Vis dėlto tam tikri simptomai atsiranda pakartotinai. Pasak didžiųjų Londono imperatoriškojo koledžo mokslininkų, dauguma žmonių, turintys ilgą Covid, praneša apie 

pavargstančių raumenų skausmus, 

miego sutrikimus ir 

dusulį. 

Kitas, mažesnis pacientų klasteris pranešė daugiausia apie kvėpavimo simptomus, įskaitant dusulį ir krūtinės skausmą ar spaudimą. 

Kiti tyrimai nustatė kognityvines problemas arba „smegenų rūką“. 

Nors sunki infekcija greičiausiai sukelia ilgą Covid, daugybė žmonių, kuriems buvo lengvi atvejai, taip pat patyrė nuolatinius simptomus. 

Imperijos tyrimas, kurio metu buvo ištirta atsitiktinė daugiau nei pusės milijono žmonių iš visos Anglijos imtis, parodė, kad maždaug ketvirtadalis iš 21 454 žmonių, patyrusių lengvą infekciją, pranešė apie bent vieną simptomą, trunkantį 12 ar daugiau savaičių. 

Tiems, kurie patyrė sunkią infekciją, buvo dar didesnė tikimybė patirti bent vieną nuolatinį simptomą, maždaug pusei. 

Tyrimas, paskelbtas „MedRxiv“ išankstinio spausdinimo serveryje, dar nebuvo peržiūrėtas. 

Ilgalaikis Covid iškėlė pavojaus signalą dėl jo polinkio smogti jauniems žmonėms taip, kaip nebuvo sunkių ligų ir mirties atvejais. Imperatoriškasis tyrimas parodė, kad tarp 18–24 metų amžiaus apie 30% tų, kurie žinomai pagavo Covid-19, nurodė bent vieną simptomą, trunkantį 12 savaičių ar ilgiau. 

 Tyrėjai įtaria, kad ilgą Covidą tikriausiai apima kelios sutampančios sąlygos, kurių priežastys yra skirtingos, ir atliekami keli dideli tyrimai, kuriais bandoma išsiaiškinti kai kurias iš jų. Tarp pirmaujančių teorijų yra tai, kad virusas sukelia tam tikrą autoimuninę būklę, kad jis sukelia ilgalaikę fizinę žalą įvairiems organams ir kad virusas užtrunka organizme ilgai po infekcijos.

Nėra įrodyto ilgalaikio Covid gydymo, nors Jungtinės Karalystės mokslininkai pradeda klinikinius tyrimus, norėdami nustatyti, ar galėtų padėti plačiai prieinami vaistai nuo uždegimo, tokie kaip aspirinas, podagros gydymas, kolchicinas ir antihistamininiai vaistai. Tuo tarpu ligoninės steigia specialias klinikas, kurios padėtų žmonėms susitvarkyti. „Aš dažnai sakau pacientams, kad nėra jokios stebuklingos kulkos, kuri juos išgydys“, - sakė Louise King, medicinos direktorė Covid atkūrimo klinikoje, kuriai vadovavo Šiaurės Karolinos universitetas Chapel Hill. „Mes tiesiog nežinome apie tai pakankamai“." [1]

 

 1.    Scientists Investigate Mystery of Long Covid. Roland, Denise. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]24 July 2021: A.1.
 

Scientists Investigate Mystery of Long Covid

 “As vaccines blunt the threat of severe illness and death from Covid-19, millions of people remain at risk of developing an array of less serious but potentially debilitating long-term symptoms of the disease that scientists call long Covid.
Many of the most vulnerable are among younger unvaccinated people who are unprotected against the rapidly spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus, nowresponsible for more than 80% of America's growing caseload.
Long Covid -- a term referring to symptoms that linger for weeks or months beyond infection -- affectsbetween 10% and 30% of people who catch the virus, including those with mild or asymptomatic infections, according to experts. In some cases, symptoms persist for more than a year.
"Even if it's not as striking as people dying, you ignore it at your peril," said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London. "In terms of healthcare burden or healthcare cost, we're on track for this being as big a problem to us as rheumatoid arthritis, the biggest autoimmune disease in the world."
Many Americans remain unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. Cases arerising as states relax restrictions and the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads. That increase won't cause as much serious illness or death as in previous waves, thanks to high vaccination uptake among the oldest and most vulnerable. But it could lead to tens of thousands of new cases of long Covid.
"Long Covid is real," said Priya Duggal, professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Now we have a whole group of individuals who have survived Covid who are going on into a chronic [long-term] state that will likely be with us for a really long time."
The scale of the issue has spurred governments to pour large sums into researching long Covid. The National Institutes of Health has committed $1.15 billion over four years for investigating the condition, while its U.K. counterpart has so far provided nearly $54 million to fund research investigating causes, diagnostic methods and possible treatments.
Long Covid is associated with a bewildering array of possible symptoms; a recentsurvey of people with confirmed or suspected long Covid by researchers at University College London identified more than 200, spanning visual hallucinations, heart palpitations and memory loss.
Still, certain symptoms crop up repeatedly. The majority of people with long Covid report fatigueas the dominant symptomalongside muscle aches, difficulty sleeping and shortness of breath, according to alarge studyby researchers at Imperial College London. Another, smaller, cluster of patients reportedpredominantlyrespiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath and chest pain or tightness. Other studies have identified cognitive issues, or "brain fog."
Although severe infection is more likely to lead to long Covid, large numbers of people who had mild cases have also suffered from persistent symptoms. The Imperial study, which surveyed a random sample of more than half a million people from across England, found that around a quarter of the 21,454 people who had suffered a mild infection reported at least one symptom lasting 12 weeks or more. Those who had suffered severe infection had even higher odds of experiencing at least one persistent symptom, around half. The study, published on the MedRxiv preprint server, hasn't yet been peer reviewed.
Long Covid has raised alarm bells for its tendency to strike the young in a way that severe illness and death haven't. The Imperial study found that among those aged 18 to 24, about 30% of those who had knowinglycaught Covid-19 reported at least one symptom lasting 12 weeks or longer.
Harry Boby, a 23-year-old former member of the British judo team, worked out at the gym five times a week before coming down with a mild Covid-19 infection in September.Now, a few pull-ups can floor him for days.
"I still don't feel myself," said Mr. Boby, adding that even mild exertion can trigger "bone-crushing fatigue." He has also suffered neurological issues ranging from memory loss to episodes where he feels paranoid and sometimes tearful.
He has twice been on sick leave due to his symptoms, for around three months each time.
Researchers suspect that long Covid likely comprises several overlapping conditions, with different causes, and several large studies are under way to try to pin some of those down. Among the leading theories are that the virus triggers some kind of autoimmune condition, that it causes lasting physical damage to various organs, and that the virus lingers in the body long after infection.
There is no proven treatment for long Covid, although researchers in the U.K. are embarking on clinical trials to establish whether widely available anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, gout treatment colchicine and antihistamines could help. Meanwhile, hospitals are establishing dedicated clinics to help people cope.
"I often tell patients there's nota magic bullet that's going to cure them," said Louise King, a medical director at a Covid recovery clinic run by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "We just don't know that much about it."” [1]

1.    Scientists Investigate Mystery of Long Covid. Roland, Denise. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]24 July 2021: A.1.

If Musk did not spare money and move the whole of Lithuania to Mars, nothing would change in our Universe.

 Lithuania has no effect on life on Earth right now. The Landsbergiai condemned the American-German agreement on the Russian gas pipeline. No one responded to these statements of these Lithuanian rulers. Landsbergiai are flying to Iraq for our money and begging the Iraqi authorities to stop planes carrying illegal migrants from Iraq to Lithuania's vicinity. The Iraqi minister also listened to these statements and promised to increase the number of such planes two times because of demand. Landsbergiai began to moan even louder that what Iraq was doing was getting worse than before. And again, everyone ignores their circus. 

Why? Lithuania lives in ideological schemes at the primary school level. We don’t understand that people have their interests and defend those interests. We do not even understand that Lithuania has its interests and we have long sacrificed those interests for ideological tales. Yes, our gas from a ship is more expensive than German gas from the Russian pipe, but our gas is almost as free as that that escapes through the rear ends of freedom fighters Landsbergiai.

Jeigu Muskas nepagailėtų pinigų ir perkeltų visą Lietuvą į Marsą, niekas nepasikeistų mūsų Visatoje.

  Lietuva neturi jokio poveikio gyvenimui Žemėje jau dabar. Landsbergiai pasmerkė Amerikos ir Vokietijos susitarimą dėl rusų dujų vamzdžio. Niekas nereagavo į šiuos Lietuvos valdančiųjų padejavimus. 

Landsbergiai skraido į Iraką už mūsų pinigus ir maldauja Irako valdžią sustabdyti lėktuvus, vežančius nelegalius migrantus iš Irako prie Lietuvos. Irako ministras išklausė ir šiuos padejavimus ir pažadėjo padidinti tokių lėktuvų skaičių kartais, nes yra paklausa.

G.Landsbergis pradėjo dar garsiau dejuoti, kad tai ką daro Irakas, tampa dar blogiau, negu iki šiol. Ir vėl niekas nepaiso jo padejavimų.

Kodėl? Lietuva gyvena pradžios mokyklos lygio ideologinėse schemose. Mes nesuprantame, kad žmonės turi jų interesus ir tuos interesus gina. Mes nesuprantame net, kad Lietuva turi jos interesus, ir seniai tuos interesus paaukojome dėl ideologinių pasakų. Taip, mūsų dujos iš laivo yra brangesnės, negu vokiečių dujos, bet užtat mūsų dujos yra beveik tokios pat laisvos, kaip tos, kurios išsiveržia per laisvės kovotojų Landsbergių užpakalius.