COVID Uncovered (part 3)

Lessons from an undisclosed NHS Trust

In parts 1 and 2 of this miniseries we discovered that severe SARS-COV-2 infection leading to development of COVID-19 symptoms, when viewed in terms of acute respiratory illness, hasn’t made much of an impression in terms of emergency department admissions or in-hospital deaths. Despite all the government propaganda COVID hasn’t been about people gasping for their last breath.

Back in March 2020 I would sit scratching my head over reports rolling in from clinicians week on week that were suggesting COVID was causing purple toes, bruising, skin rashes, diarrhoea, low blood pressure, vomiting, tachycardia, conjunctivitis, stroke, clotting, anorexia and even hair loss. This prompted a GP to wryly remark that he was going to blame his haemorrhoids on COVID. Were all these conditions – and many more to boot – genuinely a function of COVID (not forgetting long John COVID) or were they a function of reliance on an inappropriate diagnostic test?

With that bizarre medical episode at the back of …