The proposed Long Covid model is based mainly on work done by Prof. Malik Peiris et al, of the Pasteur Institute in 2011, who showed that the spike protein antibodies cause SARS CoV to infect immune cells via ADE. They showed that the virus gains control of the ribosomes inside the immune cells but the virus does not reproduce inside the immune cells. See here: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JVI.00671-11
Some think that no reproduction means no ADE and the proteins will probably get cleaned up and recycled. However, the proposed disease model suggests that all viruses that cause post-viral syndrome (ME/CFS) (including SARS Cov-2) deliberately try to infect immune cells via ADE for the purpose of down regulating the immune system (not for reproduction). The T-Cells produced by the Thymus to attack these infected immune cells also attack healthy immune cells causing various auto-immune diseases. This is explained in more detail below.
Currently, the UK has 1.2m known long covid cases which is about 2% of the population. They also know that many people with long covid don't report it or fill in surveys - so the numbers could be considerably higher than this. It has been estimated that 1 in 3 people infected with covid (vaccinated or not) could go on to get long covid which can happen between 2 weeks to 12 months after a covid infection. So, this is potentially a sleeping time bomb that needs answers. Here are my thoughts on what causes long covid after doing much reading:
Recent studies show that breakthrough infections can lead to long COVID. See here: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/breakthrough-infections-can-lead-long-covid-genes-may-explain-critical-illness-2021-10-27/
There is good reason for this. It has been demonstrated that the spike protein antibody produced by the vaccines can cause the coronavirus to infect the immune cells via a mechanism called ADE. See here:https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JVI.00671-11
The infected immune cells appear to down regulate the immune system and this can cause other viruses that have been suppressed by the immune system to become reactivated. It can also cause infections like the common cold to become much worse than anything experienced before. See here: https://thebiomedicalscientist.net/news/long-covid-linked-epstein-barr-virus https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-58624295
Long Covid (ME/CFS) happens when the immune system succeeds in producing T-Cells that target the infected immune cells.The big problem here is that the virus is not reproducing inside the immune cells (see reference above). It has evolved to just hijack the immune cells (in stealth mode) and switch off or corrupt immune cells to give the virus the best chance of infecting the lungs and airways, and then spread itself to other members of the group. So this means that the virus's component proteins do not get produced by the ribosomes in the immune cells and displayed on the immune cell's MHC1 molecules. But these infected immune cells still release cytokines (saying: "I think I'm infected").
The released cytokines bring the dendritic cells to the infected immune cells who hover up proteins displayed on the cell's MHC1 molecules and presents theses to the T-Cells in the nearest lymph node. When no T-Cells respond to these antigens, the dendritic cells then give these antigens to the Thymus to produce new killer T-Cells for targeting the immune cells that present these antigens. The big problem here is: there is no (or very little) virus protein in the target antigens and the dendritic cells will keep making requests for matching T-Cells from the Thymus until a killer T-Cell is delivered that targets the infected immune cells and deals with the problem.
Although the Thymus rejects T-Cells that target self-antigens that are on its list, the dendritic cells do not give up and relentlessly keep requesting these T-Cells. They are just responding to a mega-crowd of immune cells who are complaining of being infected. Eventually, the thymus begins producing matching T-Cells which also attack healthy immune cells that display these self-antigens. Cytokines released from dying immune cells fuels the killing frenzy until its time to have a break and let the damage repair itself. This process then repeats resulting in Long Covid which is an multi-inflammatory auto-immune disease with no known cure. The variations of this disease depend on which self-antigens end up getting targeted by the rogue T-Cells.
The difficulty the dendritic cells have in getting the Thymus to produce a T-Cell that kill infected immune cells accounts for the considerable time delay before the onset of Long Covid after infection. It also explains why hormonal females, who naturally have up-regulated immune systems (including the Thymus), have a 3-4 times greater probability of getting long covid, as well as other auto-immune diseases.
So to prevent long covid, action needs to be taken to try to stop the immune cells from becoming infected with the coronavirus. The best way to do this is to avoid vaccines that produce s-protein antibodies that cause ADE and instead take an antiviral medication as soon as infection is detected. (eg Ivermectin, or the Merck or Pfizer antivirals, perhaps). This treatment might also work with all viruses that are known to cause ME/CFS (post-viral syndrome).
The human has 4 endogenous coronaviruses. As stated previously, people not vaccinated with the spike protein vaccines might have a better chance of avoiding long covid, particularly if they take an antiviral medication at the onset of infection. This is because studies have shown that the natural immune response to the coronavirus is to attack the virus first with the n-protein antibody and to only use the s-protein antibody as a last resort, or as part of the cleanup crew.
The n-protein antibody does not cause infection of the immune cells via ADE which allows for full recovery from the virus. This suggests that the healthy (unaltered) human immune system has already learnt how to appropriately deal with coronaviruses and avoid post-viral syndrome. That might also explain why not everyone gets long covid after infection and why an epidemic of long covid is now occurring in countries that have highly vaccinated populations like the UK. It is also alarming that many countries are now experiencing spiking covid infection rates among fully vaccinated people. The work done by Peiris in 2011 suggests that the spike protein antibodies WILL cause the virus to migrate into the immune cells via ADE. So, will these people go on to get Long Covid? Only time will tell.
