Branch Covidian Advent Calendar, 15 Dec. 2023
Two Tales of 'Long Covid', as Reported, with the Same Glaring Omission
Translations, emphases, and bottom lines mine.
Suffering Long Covid: ‘They Wanted to Commit me to a Mental Hospital for 3 Weeks’
By Christine Ziechert, Heute, 30 Nov. 2023 [source]
Manuela Hitz (53) fell ill with coronavirus in March 2021. Since then, the woman from Lower Austrian suffers from severe Long Covid symptoms.
The number of coronavirus cases in Austria is currently rising sharply. Over 29,000 Austrians were on sick leave last week due to Covid-19. According to communications scientist Jakob-Moritz Eberl, the strongest sewage signal since measurements began was also recorded. [I’m not commenting on this, I did so yesterday]
A coronavirus infection also increases the risk of contracting Long Covid—like Manuela Hitz: ‘I can now speak full sentences again, which is a great success for me’, reported the 53-year-old at an SPÖ press conference on the topic of ‘Long Covid and ME/CFS [chronic fatigue syndrome]’. The Lower Austrian from Waidhofen/Thaya was diagnosed with coronavirus in March 2021 and has suffered from severe health restrictions ever since.
Going to Work became Impossible
After the ÖGK [Österreichische Gesundheitskasse, the umbrella company administering public health insurance] employee was diagnosed as having been in contact with two [other people testing] positive at work, Hitz had to go into quarantine: ‘On 14 March, I tested positive for the Delta variant’, says the 53-year-old. She fell so seriously ill that she had to be hospitalised for a week. ‘After I was discharged, however, I didn't receive any therapy suggestions on how to improve my condition. I couldn't walk 200 metres at the time’, says Hitz.
A CT scan showed that the Lower Austrian's lungs were coated with a milky mucus-like substance: ‘It was a complete standstill for me. I couldn't go back to work, I just couldn't do anything’, recalls Hitz, who was on cortisone for four months at the time.
My hair fell out in clumps, I had a bladder infection every month for six months straight. I also had flatulence, as if I was nine months pregnant.
Even two stays in rehab didn't bring any improvement—quite the opposite: ‘During the first rehab stay, they tried very hard. But it was under pressure, my body was expected to do far too much. If I swam just one more length, I was lying down for two days. When I returned home, my condition was worse than before. The second rehab was even more strenuous. I couldn't do anything for the last two weeks’, recalls Hitz.
The 53-year-old has numerous Long Covid and ME/CFS symptoms: she is extremely sensitive to light and noise, has problems concentrating (‘brain fog’), suffers from fatigue, insomnia, extreme exhaustion, and gastrointestinal problems: ‘I lost my hair in clumps, I had a bladder infection every month for six months. I also had flatulence, as if I was nine months pregnant. I couldn't even get out of bed myself due to whole-body pain that is difficult to describe’, she explains.
Psychiatrist Wanted to have her Institutionalised
Despite the multitude of complaints, the doctors were unable to help the Long Covid sufferer—she was often even ridiculed: ‘You are so helpless and at the mercy of others. A primary care doctor ordered several examinations, but nothing could be found. He finally advised me to see a psychiatrist’, explains Hitz.
But he made everything even worse: ‘[Seeing a psychiatrist] nearly killed me. I thought I was suffocating there [orig. Er hat mir die Luft zum Atmen genommen. Ich habe geglaubt, ich ersticke dort.]. Then he suggested that I should be committed to a psychiatric ward for three weeks. He just blamed everything on my psyche. But a lovely doctor advised me against it and I refused. After that, I didn't even get a report. I was on my own again.’
‘Mrs Hitz was most likely infected on the job. Nevertheless, the AUVA [Austria’s Work-Related Accident Insurance Corp.] does not recognise this as an occupational health and safety issue and prefers to be sued.’
Rudolf Silvan, SPÖ spokesman for the Ombudsman's office [Volksanwaltschaft]
The [‘lovely’] doctor in question took Hitz on, attended seminars, courses, and training sessions on Long Covid on her own initiative: ‘She said to me: “we can do this”’, says the 53-year-old. Special tests sent to Germany revealed that the Lower Austrian has numerous (energetic) deficits throughout her body (such as in her kidneys), adding: ‘My life has been reduced to the bare minimum.’
Like Hitz, an estimated 100,000 people in Austria suffer from Long Covid, around 60% of whom are unable to work. There are also around 25,000 ME/CFS sufferers. In addition to health problems, many sufferers also have financial worries: ‘Mrs Hitz most likely contracted the disease at work. Despite this, the AUVA does not recognise this as an occupational health and safety issue and prefers to be sued. If the AUVA recognised it, she would receive a pension’, explains SPÖ Ombudsman Rudolf Silvan, who is calling for Covid to be recognised as an occupational disease in all sectors.
‘The curricula at medical universities must be adapted so that Long Covid and ME/CFS are recognised more quickly.’
Eva-Maria Holzleitner, deputy chairwoman of the SPÖ parliamentary group
Hitz received continued payment of her salary for a year, followed by rehabilitation money from the PVA [Pensionsversicherungsanstalt, the public retirement fund]—but that has now come to an end: ‘Two weeks ago, the PVA informed Mrs Hitz that the rehabilitation money would be discontinued’, Silvan opens. This leaves the Long Covid sufferer out in the cold financially.
The fact that Long Covid and ME/CFS sufferers are ‘left to fend for themselves’ is considered ‘highly problematic’ by the deputy chair of the SPÖ parliamentary group, Eva-Maria Holzleitner. Holzleitner welcomes the National Reference Centre for Post-Viral Diseases announced by Health Minister Johannes Rauch, but insists on its rapid implementation before the end of this legislative period. ‘We are not only calling for a concrete timetable, but also a close look at the gender medicine aspect. The curricula at medical universities must be adapted so that Long Covid and ME/CFS are recognised more quickly’, says Holzleitner.
Lack of Contact Points for Long Covid Sufferers
The reference centre is a step in the right direction, but many Long Covid sufferers still criticise the lack of contact points: ‘I would like to see centres for sufferers where we are understood and seen. And where we can also get information. Because as someone suffering from Long Covid, you have to find all the information yourself—you're always grasping at straws.’
Intermission
This is getting much longer than I thought; I shall post that above-mentioned second piece as a separate article.
Bottom Lines
Isn’t this awful? What a poor woman suffering not ‘just’ from these symptoms, but also from ‘medical professionals’ ignoring, ridiculing her and, effectively, gaslighting her (in the original sense of the movie, i.e., telling her she’s crazy).
If, at this point, you’re asking yourself one crucial question—what about Ms. Hitz’ ‘vaccination status’—here’s another one to be considered:
According to her own statements as reported above, she ‘tested positive’ on 14 March 2021, claiming the variant to have been ‘Delta’. This is problematic, for the following reason—and let’s discount any notion that ‘public data’ is or isn’t reliable (I doubt its reliability), but here’s OWID on that claim (source):
You saw this correctly, according to the ‘quasi-official’ numbers compiled by OWID, on 14 March 2021, 75.63% of all sequences returned with the ‘Alpha’ variant, 7.94% with the ‘Beta’ variant, and the remainder being labelled ‘other’. Now, I’m not discounting the possibility of Ms. Hitz having contracted the ‘Delta’ variant in mid-March 2021, but the likelihood seems rather…small.
Also, we note, for the sake of completeness, that the ‘shots’ provided vaccinees with genetic modRNA from the original, wild-type Sars-Cov-2, which was entirely prevalent, and I think that, apart from the above information about the variants then circulating, the question of Ms. Hitz’ ‘Long Covid’ being actually an instance of vaccine damage looms extra-large.
If, for the sake of that argument, we speculate about this, the numbers are staggering in terms of the 100,000 people like Ms. Hitz suffering from ‘Long Covid’, esp. as the official numbers of vaccine-induced adverse don’t really reflect that.
Finally, all things considered, what is ‘Long Covid’?
As by the people who funded the Wuhan lab, Peter Daszak’s mad science, and the Bat Lady, behold (emphases mine):
Some people who have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 can experience long-term effects from their infection, known as Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions (PCC). Long COVID is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after acute COVID-19 infection. This definition of Long COVID was developed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in collaboration with CDC and other partners.
People call Long COVID by many names, including Post-COVID Conditions, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, long-term effects of COVID, and chronic COVID. The term post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection (PASC) is also used to refer to a subset of Long COVID.
Click on the below link for the second part:
When was she jabbed with KOVID “vaccines”?
You may find this of interest:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.15.23298566v1.full