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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 12m

The coastal path from Dunseverick Castle to the Giant's Causeway earlier this afternoon. One of my favourite places on Earth.

A landscape photograph. A narrow rocky trail in the foreground, flanked by a barbed wire fence to the right and thick heather to the left, leads towards a headland in the midground of the shot. The ocean is visible beyond the headland, calm and still. A jagged coastline of headlands and coves snakes away to the horizon on the right of the shot, with a thick, cloudy sky above. The green of the land could only be Ireland, but the colours of the sky, sea, and land are muted by the dull October light.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 7h

5. And remember, if you believe that Covid is 'gone', you will, by definition, never, ever consider that you may have Long Covid.

/end

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 7h

4. This utterly mistaken but seemingly widespread belief that Covid-19 has somehow gone away is precisely the inevitable result of declaring the pandemic to be over and tacitly allowing people to take that declaration to mean that SARS-CoV-2 has magically disappeared.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 7h

3. ... my feeling is that their illness *genuinely is a mystery to them*.

This is precisely what happens when a concerted effort is made by governments, public health, and the media to downplay or erase Covid-19.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 7h

2. All of these conversations were perfectly pleasant. The theme that ran through all of them was a genuine belief that Covid-19 was 'gone'. Not endemic, or 'just a cold', but 'gone'. When you see videos on social media featuring young people bemoaning their 'mystery illness'...

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 7h

1. I've had a surprising number of conversations about Covid-19 over the past week or so, all sparked by the fact that I was, as always, wearing an FFP2 respirator. People in healthcare facilities, taxi drivers, people on trains and buses.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 2d

Looking out on the Atlantic Ocean from West Strand, Portrush. From the early days of the pandemic, the rugged coastline between here and Ballycastle has been my sanctuary. The photograph is not filtered; the concrete-like, flat, monotone light is typical of October here.

A photograph of the ocean. The colours of the scene are grey and muted. The foreground is cresting waves, a heavy swell breaking towards the shore. A rocky headland protrudes from the left of the shot, with a distant coastline just visible on the horizon. The sky is grey and overcast, with only a few scattered patches of light breaking through. Rain over the sea can be seen on the horizon.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 9d

Vaccination is highly effective at preventing hospitalisation for acute Covid-19. The NHS is under unprecedented pressure. A sensible, evidence-based policy decision would thus be to significantly widen eligibility for free Covid-19 vaccination.

inews.co.uk/news/health/...

Covid hospitalisations up by 37% - highest in nearly a year

Waning immunity from jabs and prior infections - together with rising cases as children go back to school and the weather cools - are thought to be behind the rise in hospitalisations

inews.co.uk

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 10d

The residents of this community are quite correct to be concerned about groundwater contamination; the dead chickens that are being dumped there were culled due to H5N1 infection. These dumping practices are significant biological risks.

www.tmj4.com/news/jeffers...

Palmyra community alarmed as trucks pull into potential dump site for millions of dead chickens

Palmyra community expresses alarm as 3 million chickens killed due to bird flu are dumped in their area, fearing smell and groundwater issues.

www.tmj4.com

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 11d

Why has an intelligent and articulate woman wearing a mask and speaking at the UN provoked an aggressive response from some media outlets?

Because her mask and her words have profoundly perturbed people at a deeply subconscious level. The nature of that perturbation is fear.

Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

3. As such, fulfilling this need requires a shared societal agreement to embrace vast cognitive dissonance. Those who choose not to be part of this agreement will, inevitably, be deemed as having a mental health condition (Foucault understood this phenomena very well indeed).

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 11d

It's simple: just like healthcare professionals, they are not immune to the very powerful sociocultural forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, our deeply flawed response to a clear and present biological threat. Even more simply: they're wrong.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 11d

Exactly 💯

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 11d

Perfect!

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 12d

Let me be clear. As someone who has been professionally involved with the biodefense / biosecurity sector for nearly 20 years, and has worked on biological risk analysis for Covid-19 since early 2020, reducing one's risk of being infected is not health anxiety. It's just smart.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

6. The great and tragic irony is that the more societies agree to ignore it, by prioritising a yearning for the status quo above all else, the more of a force multiplier our societies become for the virus.

Societies have become the virus's greatest ally.

/end

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

5. Remember also, however, that, simply put, the virus doesn't care. It is incapable of caring. It is a molecular shark that wants to make more of itself. That's all it is. And regardless of human desires for an illusory status quo, it will keep killing and disabling people.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

4. Remember, then, that the tools to both prevent and mitigate infection are now no longer just tools; they are powerful symbols that disrupt and challenge the aforementioned societal agreement. This is why people react so very strongly to them. React irrationally to them.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

3. As such, fulfilling this need requires a shared societal agreement to embrace vast cognitive dissonance. Those who choose not to be part of this agreement will, inevitably, be deemed as having a mental health condition (Foucault understood this phenomena very well indeed).

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

2. The memory of these policies is a component of it, to be sure, but the deep underlying reason is a shared yearning for the world to be as it was in 2019. In effect, 2019 has become the status quo that almost everyone needs to cling to. This need is pathological in nature.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 13d

1. The intense and all-encompassing institutional and societal pushback seen in some countries against any intervention to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19, whether that be vaccines, or air filtration / purification, or masks, is not simply as a result of mandates or lockdowns.

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 14d

3. archive.ph/9r4hI

/end

archive.ph

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 14d

2. ...increasing their risk of heart failure, diabetes and cognitive, behavioural and psychiatric disorders. And there’s no cure'.

m.independent.ie/opinion/commen…

Paywall-free link in next post:

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/commen…

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 14d

1. Superb article by Tess-Finch Lees published today.

'Six years into forever-Covid, the evidence is unequivocal. Coronavirus is an airborne, disabling, neuroinvasive vascular disease that can damage children’s immunity, blood vessels and organs,...

Link in next post

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 17d

I have no issue with this piece - other than the now-expected omission of the word, 'Covid'. What I find interesting is just how mainstreamed 'brain fog' has become.

BBC News - Creatine - can muscle-boosting supplement help with brain fog? - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Creatine - can muscle-boosting supplement help with brain fog?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 17d

Same, Anton - I'll never understand that.

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