The Antidote #10: the CDC abandons the vulnerable
Plus, microclots, a great recovery story, and a special offer
Welcome to The Antidote, the biweekly roundup post from The Tonic that is filled to the brim with goodies.
The Tonic is a lighthearted, heavily resourced newsletter for folks interested in learning about long COVID, ME/CFS, and other chronic illnesses. Come for the info; stay for the whimsy. Or vice versa.
Please note: my posting strategy is changing in response to my ever-shifting availability of energy (often referred to as ‘spoons’). I will generally post once a week on Saturdays or Sundays: a narrative post when my energy allows and resource roundups (The Antidote) at all other times. Occasionally I post more than once a week, usually to announce an event or to push brief, timely info out to you sooner.
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Hot off the press: the CDC fails us again
As we’ve been hearing might happen, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (ha! yeah right) has changed its isolation guidance around COVID-19 to a return to normal activities ONE DAY after a fever (never mind the fact that MANY never get a fever but are still quite sick).
This quote by Dr. Eric Topol says it all:
“The overwhelmingly abundant evidence for this virus over the past 4 years tells us that it is a far more dangerous pathogen than flu, which lacks seasonality, is still evolving, has induced Long Covid in tens of millions of throughout the worlds, and cannot be ‘FLU-ified.’ “
This is a public health failure and there are many health professionals who agree. This is what happens when capitalism gets a stranglehold over our society and government officials bow to the pressure. Employers can’t sustain productivity and turn profits if their staff are routinely out for five days each time they catch COVID-19 (which, by the way, people are catching 2-3 times a year now - NOT NORMAL).
The broader message here is that your worth and value are tied to your ability to make someone else money (while barely covering your own expenses, but that’s a whole other post), and therefore those of us who are immunocompromised, disabled, and elderly are expendable. Stay home or accept the risk of death or pervasive illness so that everyone else can go to happy hour.
Special offer
You may have seen my mention of
and the herbal triple anticoagulant therapy he developed after a research deep dive into Long COVID led him to the microclot issue as front and center. Keith is a medicinal chemist, and his supplement is called CircuGuard. Here is a bit more from a recent post of his.Having been told by my functional medicine doctor that these splotchy purple fingernails I’ve had for close to four years are most likely a sign of microclotting, I decided to give Keith’s supplement a try. I ran the ingredients by said doctor and he said they all made sense to him.
I just started it this week, so I don’t have much to report yet other than I have not had any sensitivities to it and am tolerating it well. Here is a video of a woman who is having great results so far.
If you want to try CircuGuard, Keith is offering a special code to readers of The Tonic. Get 10% off when you use the code TONIC10 at checkout.
Please know that I am not being paid to promote CircuGuard. I will however be taking advantage of the 10% off code.
COVID and Long COVID
🧪 How common are false-positive COVID-19 tests? Find out here.
🧠 This study may have been summarized in the Eric Topol link I included last week, but here it is again if you want to read up: Long Covid ‘brain fog’ may be due to leaky blood-brain barrier, study finds.
🩸 This is not new, but I came across and thought I’d share: a way to test yourself for hypoperfusion, hypercoagulability, and microclots.
🦠 Read what happened when this person with several autoimmune diseases caught COVID.
👴🏽 Do We Simply Not Care About Old People? This piece came out before the new CDC “guidance.” It is a terrible feeling to be disregarded - or worse, sacrificed - by society at large all because people care more about going to concerts. I see articles like this talking about what the elderly still contribute to our society, which I think misses the point. Haven’t they contributed enough already? And why is our human worth measured by how much we actively ‘contribute’? And what does ‘contribute’ even mean?
⚖️ On the topic of not caring, folks with darker skin have been suffering because pulse oximeters can’t get a proper read on oxygen levels. I’ve included links about this before; the problem was especially heightened during the worst of the pandemic. One clinic is suing over this.
😷 I have a few things to say about this piece: Unmasking a Nurse's Journey Through Long COVID Gaslighting. First of all, it’s utter horseshit that people who are obese and who develop long COVID have their obesity (and implicitly, themselves) blamed. I and millions of other long haulers were not obese when we developed long COVID. If you didn’t have these symptoms when you were obese before COVID, why would your doctor say that your symptoms are now due to your obesity?
Second, my own experience mirrors this nurse’s: pulmonologists have been the most gaslighting docs of all during long COVID. We know that the virus impacts the lungs but also the autonomic nervous system, which helps control our rates of breathing. So why these specialists over any other would be so dismissive is really beyond me.
🩼 Pandemic Patients is holding a webinar on Long COVID & Disability on March 15th at 1pm ET. Register here.
🖥️ Upcoming RECOVER webinar: Patterns and Prevention of Long COVID: Findings from RECOVER EHR Cohort Studies. Register here.
📽️ Watch this inspiring recovery story from Dan Buglio’s YouTube channel. Morgan is a long hauler with whom I connected in the early days of our LC and she’s now fully recovered using Dan’s TMS and mind-body connection techniques. Amazing! (also, she has the cutest little ginger daughter 👩🏻🦰).
Health miscellany
🥵 Calling all mid-life people with ovaries! Check out this site for Menopause Cafes, where you can attend events and discuss all things menopause. This was started in the UK and there are many locations there, but you’ll also find locations in Canada, Australia, and the U.S. as well. Click on the Cafes & Events tab to find a location that works for you. I registered to attend an online cafe myself.
🤧 A nurse practitioner catches something doctors missed and saved a woman’s life.
⚕️ Potential revolutionary treatment for autoimmune disease.
writes one of my favorite Substacks on various topics related to disabilities. She has begun a venture to define important terms and it is well worth your time (subscribe! you will learn a lot). In this first of her glossary posts, she defines and discusses ableism with her characteristic clarity and conciseness.
👩🏻⚕️ Dr. Lucy McBride on tips for how to find the right doctor.
🎭 I’m putting this here because identifying your emotions can help you get ‘unstuck,’ and that can have positive health benefits.
⏳ Are you eating healthy and exercising only to add more years on to the end of your life? Here’s a beautiful piece from
with an excerpt from Alain de Botton’s new book on how to add more time to your life now. I have this book sitting on my TBR shelf and now I’m even more excited to dive in.
Now stick around for…
🥳 The After-party 🥳
Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery
❤️🔥 Meryl Streep and Martin Short? YES, PLEASE.
🍚 Don't dry your iPhone in a bag of rice, says Apple
📖 This week, I finished Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. So good. Then I came across this Substack post and I soaked it all up.
🤦🏼♀️ Buffoon of the week: This dumbass tourist who got super close to a bison for a selfie. Actually, maybe he’s a winner this week? Of the Darwin award.
🏆 Winners of the week: It’s Ron and Cheryl Howard. Awww…happy 70th birthday, Ron!
🐈⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump. Winter snuggles edition.
Oh, Amy, when I heard the CDC's newest "recommendation," I immediately thought of you. It's so disappointing to watch capitalism take precedence over humanity. Sending you lots of love through an N95. XO
Thank you so much for this post and especially for this part: "The broader message here is that your worth and value are tied to your ability to make someone else money (while barely covering your own expenses, but that’s a whole other post), and therefore those of us who are immunocompromised, disabled, and elderly are expendable. Stay home or accept the risk of death or pervasive illness so that everyone else can go to happy hour." You put exactly how I've felt since COVID started into the perfect words. For my own mental health, I try not to dwell it on it too much but I can't adequately describe what it feels like that your whole country thinks you should just die (or become more disabled) all so their life can go on as "normal". Thank you for the referral to Teri's page too!