COVID-19 Resources
It would be the extremely rare person indeed who has not yet heard about the worldwide pandemic that started in 2019. Whence the COrona-VIrus Disease caused by the airborne SARS-COV2 virus that first emerged in China but quickly spread around the world was named COVID-19, to reflect that it arose in 2019. (Corona viruses are the same family as cold viruses we all experience some form of yearly, most of which aren’t nearly so serious. Unfortunately, the SARS group is.)
It is in the same family as the original 2003 SARS outbreak, which we managed to contain within a period of about six months by 2004. SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a particular family of serious bronchial viruses.
But alas, as many of our community are finding, while bronchial infection and trouble is usually the most acute and problematic issue at first, many are finding out that COVID-19 wreaks havoc on many other bodily systems, and can lend to many other problematic and sometimes lethal issues, including blood clotting, and post-viral illness syndromes like ME/CFS and all that entails. (Cranial-cervical settling, strokes, more.) This has become known as COVID long-haulers syndrome, or Long COVID for short.
ETA February 11, 2023: Thanks to the Twitterverse for confirming my suspicions, darn it. Sure enough, it looks like EDS patients are more prone to catching SARS-CoV2 due to our insufficient collagen that would normally be bound to our integrin protein sites on our fibrils in our extra-cellular matrix (where collagen is formed and born). Instead, the spike proteins on SARS-CoV2 latch on. Waah!
It has proven quite disabling and even lethal for way too many. Some of my friends have had their lives altered irreparably by it. (It remodeled one friend’s heart, permanently thinning the walls and leaving her on 24×7 oxygen.) It also sets off secondary autoimmune diseases in many. Among many other issues.
Whence this page is being born in January 2023, to collect the medical literature that’s been accumulating around Long COVID to help offset this. (I’d only posted a couple of articles on my home page before January, 2023.) I will continue to try to keep this updated as time permits. I usually retweet (or “toot”on Mastodon too now) most that I see, so that’s a great way to mine more if you have the time, until I can catch up here. Last Updated 4/1/24
- Is joint hypermobility linked to self-reported non-recovery from COVID-19? Case–control evidence from the British COVID Symptom Study Biobank 2024 Eccles, Cadar, Quadt et al
- COVID-19 and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: the dangers of the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 2023 Fajloun, Legros, Sabatier
- Orthostatic Intolerance after COVID-19 Infection: Is Disturbed Microcirculation of the Vasa Vasorum of Capacitance Vessels the Primary Defect? December 2022 Wirth and Lohn
- New Clinical Phenotype of the Post-Covid Syndrome: Fibromyalgia and Joint Hypermobility Condition March 2022 Gavrilova, Soprun, Lukashenko et al
- Covid-19 hyperinflammation and post-Covid-19 illness may be rooted in mast cell activation syndrome 2020 Afrin, Weinstock, Molderings
- COVID-19, Mast Cells, Cytokine Storm, Psychological Stress, and Neuroinflammation – Kempuraj, Selvakumar, Ahmed et al July 2020
I feel like I’m definitely missing a couple of relevant EDS and COVID articles. Feel free to share them with me at H2OhTWIST@gmail.com thanks.