The COVID Gravy Train Rolls On...
The ride never ends. Now it's "long COVID" that will be generating megabucks for Big Pharma.
Here’s a prediction: so-called “long COVID” is going to make a lot of money for Big Pharma in the coming years. Stacks of it.
Although there are serious doubts about whether long COVID actually exists — whether it’s a distinctive syndrome associated with having the virus, or whether it’s a diffuse set of symptoms that could have multiple causes, including, in some cases, being nothing more than a combined product of media and individual hysteria — health authorities and Big Pharma are pushing along with the assumption that it’s a real condition that will require its own new forms of medication. That’s very convenient for Big Pharma. And what’s convenient for Big Pharma these days is convenient for government too.
Note: I’m not saying that there aren’t lingering effects from COVID infection. I had it badly late last year, and it took me about a month to feel fully right again. It wasn’t nice. What I am suggesting, though, and what others, including eminent medical practitioners and scientists, have suggested, is that there may not be a distinctive syndrome that deserves to be called “long COVID” and treated in its own right. If you can’t identify the symptoms and you can’t measure any of them beyond subjective perception, you’ve got problems. I’m also suggesting that Big Pharma will try to play down whatever difficulties exist in order to suit its own interests. That’s making money, for those of you who live under a rock (I hope it’s cosy under there).
The
CDC reckons almost 1 in 5 adults who have had COVID now have symptoms of “long COVID”. That’s nearly 20 million people!
Here are some other “facts” about “long COVID” in the US:
Older adults are less likely to have long COVID than younger adults. Nearly three times as many adults ages 50-59 currently have long COVID than those age 80 and older.
Women are more likely than men to currently have long COVID (9.4% vs. 5.5%).
Nearly 9% of Hispanic adults currently have long COVID, higher than non-Hispanic White (7.5%) and Black (6.8%) adults, and over twice the percentage of non-Hispanic Asian adults (3.7%).
Bisexual adults and transgender adults (7.5%) were more likely to have current long COVID symptoms than adults of other sexual orientations and gender identities. 12% of bisexual adults have current long COVID symptoms, compared to 7% of straight and gay and lesbian adults. An estimated 15% of transgender adults have current long COVID symptoms, compared to 5% of cis-gender male adults and 9% of cis-gender female adults.
In the UK, the Official for National Statistics
claimed last year that 1.9 million adults were suffering from “long COVID”. The suggestion is that, while some may recover from this mysterious condition in a year or two, a large proportion of sufferers will end up with a “permanent disability”.
Given that COVID is here to stay, that means “long COVID” will be too. Obviously there are a variety of incentives working in the favour of establishing “long COVID” as a legitimate — and serious — condition. Individuals will have the potential to claim disability benefit. Some may never have to work again. The incentive for drug companies is equally obvious. These are massive markets for new drugs specifically targeted at relieving the symptoms of “long COVID”, but probably never curing them. Just like with Ozempic, there’s a ready-made market of tens of millions of people in the US and abroad.
Such drugs are already being trialled right now. One is
SIM01, which contains strains of anaerobic Bifidobacterium bacteria and soluble fibres. This combination of probiotics and prebiotics is claimed to modulate immune response by altering the composition of the gut microbiome, thereby reducing symptoms of “post-acute COVID-19 syndrome” (the fancy name for “long COVID”).
Disruption of the microbiome
has been identified as a potentially important cause of “long COVID”. A handful of studies have already suggested that administration of probiotics and prebiotics could be of benefit to sufferers.
As a
press release for SIM01 explains,
From June 2021 to August 2022, researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong randomly assigned 463 adult long COVID patients at a single hospital in a 1:1 ratio to receive SIM01 or a vitamin C placebo by mouth twice daily for six months. The median interval between infection and random assignment was four months.
The investigators clinically assessed participants at baseline for symptoms, quality of life, and physical activity level. At six months, interviewers administered a 14-item symptom questionnaire to participants and collected blood and fecal samples to assess changes in the gut microbiome and blood cytokines (small proteins that trigger the immune response).
Users of the drug were found to have a more diverse array of microorganisms in their gut at the end of the trial. But although the new drug provided some relief from symptoms, it did not bring a significant increase in quality of life or the users’ ability to exercise.
Basically, the drug didn’t work. The press release also notes that there is still confusion about the nature of “long COVID”, and how to detect and measure it, which I thought was unusually honest.
No big deal. Big Pharma will soldier on.
What they won’t want is people addressing the supposed symptoms of “long COVID” using readily accessible treatments like — well, food. After all, if the gut microbiome is disturbed, why wouldn’t you just reach for wholesome pro- and prebiotic foods instead? That’s certainly what I’d recommend. Get some raw milk. Eat some stinky cheese. Make some sauerkraut or kimchi. Cut out processed food from your diet. (These are all things you should do anyway.)
Or generic supplements. A
recent study from Serbia showed that supplementation with creatine could be one easy way to recover much quicker after infection with COVID.
The researchers had already established that tissue creatine levels in patients claiming to have “long COVID” were particularly low. In the follow-up study, the researchers took 12 test subjects aged 18-65 who'd had COVID in the previous three months but were still suffering from residual symptoms (such as breathing problems, loss of smell and chest pain). Half of the subjects received 4g of creatine a day for six months, and the other half received a placebo.
In the subjects taking creatine, there was a large reduction in residual symptoms.
Results from the creatine study
Creatine supplementation is known to have a wide variety of beneficial effects beyond muscular performance, by improving the availability of energy to the body's tissues, including the brain. It improves memory, for example. Creatine is also known to improve immune function.
Creatine has even been shown to make depression treatment with SSRIs significantly more effective (see below), and it can reduce the body's need for sleep.
Really, this whole thing is just an extension of the story of COVID itself (discredit generics, promote expensive new proprietary treatments) and of the pharmaceutical industry’s MO more generally. Nothing here should surprise you. It certainly doesn’t surprise me.
I found out about Lapado’s stunt HERE. So you’re the cancel culture. He’s largely being ignored in the media and rightfully so.
