Sam Norpel, MA

1) 🖼️ 🧵 It took painting flowers recently & DMing with another patient about my #LongCOVID #SuicidalIdeation to get my next LC painting to come to life. Long Covid: Suicidal Ideation “Thoughts in My Head”by me, Sam Norpel 2024.

Living with Long COVID means your body stops playing by the rules you’ve known your whole life. Weakness, instability, and sudden loss of strength aren’t “just fatigue” or something you can push through, they’re the result of real, measurable damage happening at a physiological level. For many patients, even basic tasks can trigger muscle failure, trembling, or collapse — and pushing through often makes things worse, not better. Read the full article by Becky Ancira Robertson on our website: whn.global/why-long-covid… #LongCOVID #LongCOVIDAwareness #COVID #COVID19 #PublicHealth

Finally… it is here. Long COVID Awareness Day March 15, 2026 Today was more than an event. More than 17 hours. More than conversations. It is a living testimony of courage, survival, heartbreak, resilience, & hope. A MASSIVE thank you to our incredible Vincent @WHN, who selflessly gave countless hours of his personal time to carefully cut this 17-hour event into 26 individual segments - making it possible for people everywhere to easily access each breathtaking, powerful, & deeply moving speaker. Every voice matters. Every story matters. Every life impacted matters. Please listen with your heart. 🩶🩵 Share. Amplify the moments that moved you most. My deepest hope is that these voices reach across every platform, every community, & every corner of the world - awakening understanding, exposing the devastating reality of #LongCovid, & igniting urgency for research, treatment, compassion, & action. This illness has stolen far too much from far too many. But on the 15th of March, together, we make sure the world cannot look away. #LongCovidAwarenessDay #LongCOVID #LongCovidHeartbeats #ChronicIllnessAwareness #WHN We have an urgent need to find treatments & stop forward transmission… NOW. Thank you to everyone who made this day a part of history. 💕🙏 @TogetherWeMask @DrMarjorieRobe1 @1goodtern @michael_hoerger @G_A_grandsong @SunnyRae @Liesl4CleanAir @jlerollblues @LCPerspectives @LongCFoundation @LongCovidAP @morgfair @yaneerbaryam @TaylorLorenz @ModelAyshaMirza @CureLongCovid @Sunny_Rae1 @Isucceed @DarainChains @pamelarbishop @NorpelSam @barbara_nivens @Ninawildflower @BetterS460 @HollyMars2

@PeteUK7 Beautiful. I’m so sorry for your loss, Pete. 💐🌹🌺🌸🪻🌼

Just wanted to share something that was close to my late Mum's heart. Her garden. I've been left with the task of trying to keep it nice since she died but I'm not in her league when it comes to this. As well as the house to deal with, this is keeping me busy. Here's part of it:

@AnciraBecky Feel better

I am pissed. 😠 Guests in town, so I’ve been sequestered in my room. Last night daughter says she can’t sleep because of her sore throat. I continue to get stuffy, moderately sore throat, fever (which comes & goes all the time for 6 yrs). Awoke an hr ago only to walk into the kitchen with a request from house guests for some Tamiflu because “something is setting in after their visit to cousins’s immediately before coming here.” Seriously?!? 😒 Enough already. 🫩

Endometriosis, a condition affecting 190 million women and girls worldwide and causes internal bleeding, was given funding for a study in 2013. Instead of studying the causes what could help cure or ease it and what may make one more susceptible to it... They studied the "Attractiveness " of women who had it. Yes, this is a real study.

@LauraMiers @Polio2022 @newstart_2024 Yep. Just said the same thing. x.com/norpelsam/stat…

@newstart_2024 Three generations of humans used screens with no dementia-like changes reported. It’s weird how screens only began doing this after Covid began. I wonder what that’s about?

Brain scans are revealing early dementia-like changes in kids and teens from heavy screen use. 60 Minutes Australia reported toddlers spending just 2–3 hours daily on devices already show abnormal white matter development. Teens averaging 6–8 hours display widened brain ridges and thinning in key areas — patterns that mirror early Alzheimer’s. Excessive screens appear to weaken neural pathways that normally strengthen through real-world movement, play, and face-to-face interaction. We’re also seeing the first IQ drops in recorded history, plus a nearly 400% rise in early-onset dementia signs among 35–44 year olds. Correlation, not proven causation — but devices are the major new variable. This is one of those reports that makes you rethink default habits. The convenience of screens is undeniable, but the potential long-term brain impacts on developing kids are hard to ignore. We may be unintentionally running a massive experiment on the next generation’s cognitive health. Are we underestimating the risks of heavy screen time, or is this concern overblown?

My #longcovid friends. Please listen to your body. I’ve had LC since 2021. All scans/labs clear until now. Yesterday I had a heart attack. No preexisting conditions. Arteries pristine, but troponin high & heart ultrasound showed a “sluggish” heart. My gut tells me it’s from LC.

What do you know? A blue checkmark without paying for one?☝️How does that happen.

@davidtuller1 Done ✅

The post below has viewed more than 15,000 times. The current crowdfunder for Berkeley's Trial By Error project has received 428 donations. If you'd like to contribute, here's the link: crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/49720

A Lancet journal, eClinicalMedicine, published a flawed. meta-analysis that promoted exercise interventions for Long COVID. The journal has published my letter rebutting this claim: virology.ws/2026/04/23/tri…

For ten years, I've been pushing back against problematic research suggesting that ME, ME/CFS, Long COVID and related illnesses are psyhosomatic, "functional," etc. I'm continuing the project through December. If you'd like to help out: crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/49720

How many Long Covid patients will this impact if it goes through? Or of the 5-6million children impacted by LC when they come of age. How many were first responders, clapped for & treated as heroes? All it takes is one more infection 💥 cnn.com/2026/04/30/hea…

@ringdinger7000 I’m extremely immunocompromised and don’t generate a meaningful amount of antibodies from the vaccine. Booster shots don’t do much for me that’s why I always mask in an N95. Covid can permanently damage your immune system

You had a long Covid Advisory Committee that was dismantled a month into the new administration. You had ONE Roundtable, not Roundtables w/ literally no action nor follow on meetings w/ those experts since last Sept. You've done NOTHING for the 30M Americans suffering from LC

Dear @Inc. Did you consider what other global conditions we've had over the last six yrs? Covid and multiple Covid infections can lead to Long Covid which can lead to mild cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It ain't just Playstation and TikTok videos.

@NorpelSam , don’t be silly. They will build herd immunity eventually. 🤨

NON-VIOLENT PROTEST DURING A CONFERENCE ON #LongCovid. We are people living with Long Covid and we are sick. We want real care, not cognitive behavioral therapy or meditation. We need medications for our lungs, hearts, stomachs, immune systems, brains damaged by #Covid.

We want real medical examinations, we want blood tests and medical imaging. We will not let you off the hook and we will condemn all the projects, all the investments that psychologize LC. If the virus persists in our bodies, our anger does too. Nothing for us without us!

These patients are angry. We should all be angry about how Long Covid is being buried and patients are gaslit and not helped in any way at all. We are all potentially one infection away from being in the same position. Please watch and listen.

RESPECT to @TaylorLorenz for having the courage to acknowledge what no one wants to hear- The Pandemic is NOT over!