What if every COVID-19 infection was causing a degradation of our T cells, impairing our ability to fight infection? Anthony Leonardi studied T cells for his PhD and from the beginning of the pandemic that is what he has observed - T cell harm triggering autoimmune disfunction. That is in every COVID-19 infected sample he's studied, not just for those of us already showing the signs of Long Covid, every one. This degradation on a cellular level is even more pronounced in Long Covid patients.
Leonardi talks us through the role that T-cells play in fighting infection, the changes that he is seeing, what that means for our immune systems and what might happen if we continue to be infected, highlighting the importance of mitigation if we are to avoid mass disability. So if each infection chips away at our T-cells' ability to operate, with the potential to compromise the immune system of each person that contracts it, governments' decisions to allow the virus to run through populations might not look so promising. We could be looking at a world of Long Covid.
N.B. this episode contains a lot of scientific terminology. To help decipher we have created a glossary that is available within this episode's description on our website here.
Living with Long Covid? How was your week?
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