Why COVID-19 is “a vascular disease masquerading as a respiratory one”
Published: 09 February 2026
"Although COVID is transmitted through the respiratory system, much of the pathology unfolds in the vascular system, with microvascular damage, thromboinflammation, and dysregulated perfusion underpinning the cardiac, pulmonary, and neurological manifestations of severe disease."
Illustration showing a side profile of a human head with red, branching blood vessels extending through the brain and face against a red background. Text below reads: “Why covid-19 is ‘a vascular disease masquerading as a respiratory one’.”
Yes! We need to get the word out that COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disease, that it can impact almost every vascularized organ!
But it's simultaneously INCREDIBLY frustrating to read "The best preventive measure is vaccination" when we KNOW that the best preventative measure is clean air via respirators, and the second best preventative measure is cleaner air through air exchange and filtration.
I had lunch today at a tiny restaurant which was crowded the whole time I was there. CO2 never got above 700, and most of the time it stayed below 600.
I can't imagine that's coincidence. The owner of that restaurant must have put conscious effort into ensuring adequate ventilation.
We could do this everywhere. Indoor air quality could be good in every indoor space.
Instead, we're just letting people get sick over and over. #COVID#ventilation#IAQ
Yaneer Bar-Yam, founder of the so-called World Health Network which so many covid-aware people foolishly insisted on following, appears in the Epstein files.
Dzisiaj byla jazda na okresową wizytę kontrolną SM w szpitalu i po odbiór leków na następny kwartał. Na korytarzach pełno ostrzeżeń o zwiększonych zakażeniach grypy i covida, a tylko ja nosiłom maseczkę, nawet personel nie miał 😑 i jak tu świadomie obniżać sobie odporność, kiedy mało kto mnie chroni
I immediately recoil from anyone that tells me something is inevitable.
There is virtually nothing involving humans that is inevitable except for death. There's a difference between something that's inevitable, and something being forced upon you labelled as inevitable.
-Repeated COVID infections
("it's inevitable you'll get sick so we won't bother trying to protect you, and you shouldn't either")
-AI
("technology advancement is inevitable so don't waste time and energy resisting it")
-Fascism
("this is just a phase in a natural political cycle so don't worry about it...")
Late is the hour of US Republican capitulation after decades of mental and physical trauma on the remaining US citizens they haven't murdered.
Yet.
The #Republican response to #Covid claimed the lives of over 700,000 US citizens in a year. #Republicans
Today, they want to "turn the temperature down."
No. #NoKings !
The charlatans and loyalists on #Squawkbox think the excuses for US expansion from 1700 to 1900 are relevant today and that is exactly what a dinosaur would think. #CNBC #joekernen #newsrewind
omg #antivaxxers do not enjoy being told they were a shot their mom should have swallowed when they say we should sacrifice the weak and stop all vaxxing. #covid#health#uspol
This is among the most concise and well cited sources for the current state of #Covid knowledge and tools. Even for well-informed people who already take strong precautions, there is still likely something new to be learned by giving it a read through.
The mysterious US #Conservative: A ghost in the shell.
It was all a lie. A simplistic reduction into wedge issue.
"The Conscience of a Conservative" was written in 1960 by Barry #Goldwater who is acknowledged as the idea behind today's #Republican think tanks like "The Heritage Foundation."
It's all in the past now. Replaced by a hallucination machine that promised to "build a wall" and "fix #immigration". The Boomers had no defense against the onslaught of rage bait by tech billionaires.
And so they voted for the criminal in a depressed and most expensive #POTUS election in history. The elders drank the rage bait poison from their TV and phone. They danced on the #COVID victim graves. They pollute from the courts to the climate. They start oil wars. They laugh at corruption.
Now they want #ICE to kill #Democrats in the streets.
The #Conservative was always a lie on a one way path to today. #NewsRewind #election2026 #2026election #NoKings !
A friend sent me this Covid Policy Statement (from a church in Vancouver, Canada) and I feel so seen that I'm in tears. It's well written and relatively comprehensive. It is also an astonishing example of care and compassion combined with science to inform an approach to covid.
I'm sharing it here for the many Fedi friends who may be heartened by it or find it useful.
Urgent Appeal: Help Anna #Escape#Abuse – Time is Running Out!
🚨EMERGENCY: Anna's Life Hangs in the Balance – Act NOW to Rescue Her from #Abuse and #Neglect!
Anna, an Australian woman battling severe #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis (#ME) for over 20 years, is trapped in a toxic home with abusive family members. Bedbound and forced to stay in a dark room, she is vulnerable and that vulnerability is taken advantage of. She is not allowed access to #disability aids or workers and needs approval for all mailed items including food, which may be binned or sold regardless. There are no steady rules, just excuses for her abuse. She faces deliberate exposure to sensory overload, days without food, constant yelling, stolen belongings, and three #COVID infections in 15 months due to unmasked family members. She now has #LongCovid as well. Compounded by #endometriosis, #hypothyroidism, #POTS, #chronicpain, and more - her health is deteriorating rapidly.
** Her doctor fears that staying in this environment will kill her.**
#Australia's #healthcare, #disability, and #domesticviolence systems have failed her catastrophically,. This systemic neglect has created a life-threatening crisis – and for Anna, it's already too late to wait.
Anna's Critical Needs – Your Support Can Save Her:
Safe Housing ASAP: Anna desperately needs a quiet room in a COVID-conscious (masking) home in #Melbourne. She can pay rent $250 per week, with funded meals and limited care hours; long-term help may qualify for Carer's Allowance. She has indicated she may need incidental help.
Secure Relocation: Specialized transport to reduce infection risks and suit her ME. Funds needed for moving costs and aids until #NDIS access.
Expert Advocacy: A #DisabilityAdvocate for complex cases to navigate the system with her. Even a friend just willing to help. She can’t do this alone.
Communication Aid (#Australia, preferably #Victoria): Someone to handle phone tasks – all documents provided. Brain injury has made phone use impossible.
-This is a Shameful Failure – But You Can Help In a resource-rich nation, no one should rot in abuse while services ignore them. Don't let Anna become a statistic.
Have masking or respirator questions?
Want to learn about mask decoration options?
Interested in accessories like drinking valves or beard bands?
Just trying to find a model that fits well?
Then join us today, January 10th, at 5:30pm Central (UTC -6) for examples, demos, answers, and details: https://meet.jit.si/QualityRespiratorsProtectThoroughly
(No need to create an account - just enter a name or username and join.)
Event promo image featuring the profile picture of Texan_Reverend and the event details:
Masking Webinar + Q&A
With Texan_Reverend
Saturday, January 10th
At 5:30pm Central
Respirator Reuse, Decorations, Drinking Valves, Sizing, and More!
Attend Via Jitsi
https://meet.jit.si/QualityRespiratorsProtectThoroughly
Hosted By:
https://kind.social/@Texan_Reverend
This post is part of a new blog series focusing on Long COVID. The author, Rachel Nussbaum, is a Master of Public Health and COVID-19 long-hauler, with three years of lived experience with Long COVID. Through this series, WHN aims to raise awareness of Long COVID and long-hauler experiences, as well as the implications of the disease for public health.
Dark textured background with “whn.global” at the top. Large headline text reads: “Writing Long COVID off as something that’s not a concern for everyone paves the way for disaster.” Smaller text below reads: “No one is immune to COVID-19’s lasting effects. Proven measures — masking, clean indoor air, testing, and reducing airborne spread — can significantly lower harm.” Three photos appear beneath the text: an N95 respirator, a portable air purifier, and a COVID rapid test. Footer text reads: “The World Health Network is a network devoted to global compassion—working together to inspire collective action through science for a safer, healthier world.”
This article examines evidence showing that Long COVID can affect people who were young, active, and healthy before infection, including those with mild or asymptomatic cases, and explores what current research tells us about ongoing risk and prevention.
#Boston#CovidConscious peeps…
I didn't realize we were running out of KN95 ear-loop masks and ordered more later than I should have, and now the store I ordered them from cancelled the order, so we're going to run out before I can get more delivered. Anybody know where in #BostonMA or adjacent communities I can buy them in person?
I need the fold-flat masks with ear loops and a bendable nose-piece, they're the only ones my son can wear.
Thanks! #COVID
There are folks who'll tell you not to isolate, that masks are a good idea but optional and you should balance the social stigma against the protection.
There are other folks who will cite reputable sources showing that we're losing over 100,000 per year to COVID, and that it's hitting those over 65 really hard.
I'm one of those other folks, and here's the promised reputable source:
Although SARS-CoV-2 isn’t often transmitted to the fetus, adverse neurological developmental effects may still occur, the authors noted. Animal experiments have suggested that immune activation during maternal infection may disrupt fetal brain development.
Maternal immune activation seems to be the common pathway to brain immune programming “that can then make offspring more vulnerable to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes,” said Andrea Edlow, MD, MSc, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a senior author of the study.
Edlow and her coauthors previously identified an elevated risk of neurodevelopmental diagnoses in children aged 12 months and 18 months after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy. With the new study, the researchers wanted to see whether the association persisted further into childhood, as suggested by smaller observational studies.
“The children are just becoming ages where they will have these diagnoses,” Edlow said. “So we wanted to see does SARS-CoV-2 viral infection in pregnancy behave like other viral infections where it does confer this increased risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, or is it somehow different?” ⬇️ https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2843606
· 43% of Latino people reported symptoms of #LongCOVID in a new survey study published in Journal of General Internal Medicine
· A case series for Long COVID using a combination of Paxlovid, valacyclovir (Valtrex) and celecoxib (Celebrex), was recently published in Frontiers of Immunology
· A new phase II clinical trial for Long COVID was recently announced in the Netherlands
· The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted expanded access to the stem cell infusion RegeneCyte for #LongCOVID
· Long COVID isn’t being consistently captured around the world due to differences in sociological factors, diagnostic tools, and healthcare access
· A phase two trial for Long COVID-associated postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (#POTS) is testing a product called 2-hydroxybenzylamine (2-HOBA)