Andrea Barrett

Update about my legal challenge in relation to right to wear a mask indoors when voting, a thread. #MyMaskMyVote 🧵⤵️ 1/12

Legalising and regulating drugs is about reducing the harm and deaths caused by drug use, and treating addicts rather than criminalsing them. It is appalling that Labour and Reform are playing politics with people's lives.

I wear a respirator when I’m cleaning. They’re not just for infectious disease.

Proud moment: our air purifiers are being rolled out to more than 200 schools across London, UK. Schools should be among the first places to have cleaner air.

Introducing Hannah Spencer MP 💚

They lied about what was in the air at Ground Zero. They lied about asbestos for decades. They lied about the toxicity of radium exposure. Why do you think they’d tell the truth about the severity of Covid? The government & the corporations they protect do not care about you.

Gorgeous speech. I don’t know I’ve heard an MP say that people who can’t work ALSO DESERVE A NICE LIFE. Disabled people really needed to hear that. I love this.

Palantir is using AI to generate patient discharge letters from NHS medical records. The NHS’ data ethics watchdog is raising the alarm about the project – & the @DHSCgovuk responds by announcing that it will be rolled out nationwide! Roll back now! bmj.com/content/392/bm…

He’s actually just the best communicator in UK politics right now. You know how likeable someone has to be to make me watch a party broadcast?! Vote Green.

Long COVID hasn’t disappeared. People continue to develop it after new infections—yet the myth that it’s “over” still persists. Bára’s story shows the reality: after her 3rd COVID‑19 infection in 2025, she became house‑bound with severe fatigue and heart issues.

Last week, I lost a 35-year-old patient to AIDS. The worst part? He had no idea he was even sick. From history we got to know, he was having recurrent fevers for many years, lost a few kilos, he used to just pop a paracetamol, and go back to work. He thought he was just tired from life. By the time he reached our hospital, it was already too late He didn’t look like the dying patients you see in movies. He looked like any other guy. But internally, he was fighting a war for maybe a decade? without any weapons. When his labs came back, his CD4 count (the soldiers of the immune system)was less than 50. A healthy person has 500–1,500. He had almost nothing left. HIV is a very manageable condition today. ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) works wonders, it can make the virus undetectable and let you live a full, normal life.. But the medicine only works if you recognize the signs early. If you wait until the house is already burned down, there is very little we can do.. Let me quickly brief you the stages of HIV First: The "Flu" 2–4 weeks after exposure, you get a fever, sore throat, or a rash. It feels like a standard viral bug. You "recover" in a week and think you are fine. Stage 1: The Silence (Clinical Latency) This is where my patient lived for years. The virus reproduces slowly. You have zero symptoms. You feel healthy. Maybe a random fever once a year that you blame on the weather. Because you feel fine, you never get tested. This is the most dangerous stage because you are still infectious and don't even know it. You might have Persistent Generalized Lymphadenopathy-swollen, painless lymph nodes in the neck or armpits for >3 months. Most ignore these! Stage 2: Mild Symptoms The immune system is starting to slip. Look for: >Moderate unexplained weight loss (<10% of body weight). >Recurrent URIs (sinusitis, tonsillitis, otitis media). >Herpes Zoster (Shingles) >Minor skin issues (Seborrheic dermatitis, fungal nail infections). Stage 3: Advanced Symptoms The breaking point is near. This is where symptoms become hard to ignore: >Unexplained severe weight loss (>10% of body weight). >Chronic diarrhea or persistent fever >Oral Candidiasis (Thrush). >Pulmonary TB. Stage 4: AIDS (Severe Symptoms) This is the stage my patient was in. CD4 count <200 plus "AIDS-defining" conditions like HIV wasting syndrome, Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), or extrapulmonary TB. By the time he reached us, he had opportunistic pneumonia. Without an immune system, even the strongest antibiotics can't save you. He succumbed last week because he spent years managing symptoms with paracetamol instead of finding the cause. In 2026, no one should be dying of AIDS. Don't trust the mirror. Trust a blood test. It's the only way to know before it's too late

Phillips "This is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things they say" @ZackPolanski: 2,700 people have been arrested for holding up signs And well done to Zack for challenging Phillips smear that 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is antisemitic

Survival of 8 common viruses in the air: RSV: up to 45 mins Influenza: at least 1 hour Rhinovirus: 1-2 hours Measles: up to 2 hours Norovirus: up to 2 hours COVID-19: up to 3 hours Chickenpox: several hours Mumps: several hours TB: 6-12 hours 😷+🪟+ HEPA #CleanAir

“I’m really worried for my friends and neighbours who are immigrants, or the children of immigrants, who’ve kept our city region moving for decades.” Green Party candidate for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, says the threat of adopting ICE-style tactics would put settled, hardworking communities in the firing line.

-The Invisible Mindshift of Long Covid- “Long Covid doesn’t just change the body. It quietly rewires the mind, bending how we perceive even the simplest truths.” August 2025. I was teaching a fitness class when she walked in the exercise studio. I hadn’t seen her in months. She moved slower, stopping often for breath. “Issues with exercise lately,” she said, brushing it off. Then it spilled out: “Every time I try to exercise, my heart races. I can’t breathe. I get dizzy. It just started happening… for no reason.” For no reason. 😒 She tried to rationalize it: “Maybe it’s because I gained weight… you lost a lot awhile back…do you feel better since then?” I just looked at her and told her I still had Long Covid and unfortunately good health does not hide inside smaller bodies. She blinked. “Long Covid? But isn’t that from the…?” Her finger lifted,pointed and jabbed into her upper arm. A silent accusation. A story she had been handed. 💉 “No,” I said steady and clearly. “I was not vaccinated when I got Covid. I developed Long Covid from the virus. I have permanent health issues because of it.” Silence swallowed the music in the studio room for a second. “Maybe you should make sure you don’t have this too,” I told her. “Because what you are describing sounds familiar.” The color drained from her face like someone pulled a plug. 🔌 I have never seen a person leave so fast. Mat rolled up, sweat towel crammed into her purse, Water bottle abandoned. Gone with the wind. 🏃‍♀️ 💨 This is how Long Covid rewires the human mind. Everyone wants simpler explanations: stress, weight, aging, deconditioning, the shot… just anything but admitting Covid can rearrange a life in a single breath and never stop. Long Covid quietly rewrites the rules of logical thinking. It steals trust between the mind and the body’s own pulse, eroding certainty symptom by symptom. And the cruelest part? Watching people sense the truth about Long Covid, yet reach for any explanation safer than admitting the air itself can change bodies permanently.

This initiative costs 5p per pupil per day. Less than a tenner per pupil per year (195 days in a school year). Sickness absences down, attendance up, savings to supply teacher budgets. Knock-on benefits for society and economy huge too. Surely a no-brainer for every government.

Reform’s by-election candidate Matt Goodwin received a salary of up to €10,000 a month from a far-right pressure group based in Hungary 👀 goodlaw.social/h15j

She's literally debating you in the video you posted.

🗣️“In pursuing arbitrary savings figures, the government risks our lives rather than testing new approaches that benefit disabled people, and the wider economy and society." - DR UK's Mickey Erhardt in @johnpringdns's latest piece Read more 👇 disabilitynewsservice.com/cuts-to-disabi…

🚨The Law of Unintended Consequences: How the government justified preventable harm New report by Mo Stewart can be accessed on our website 📗 disabilityrightsuk.org/news/law-unint…

🎭We've been working with Disabled communities & arts groups to build a Toolkit that will help make creative spaces more accessible for all. 💥We're so excited to be launching this next month, and we want YOU there! Don't miss it! Register on either day using the links below👇