Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy
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angryhacademic.bsky.social
Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy
@angryhacademic.bsky.social
700 followers 260 following 4.6K posts
#LongCovid Scientific Consultant
PhD Nutrition & Metabolism
Hon Research Fellow, Lund Uni
Posts: nutrition ▪ health ▪ all-things-science ▪ activism ▪ fun facts ▪ #PostVac

Donations: https://ko-fi.com/drsmash

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LongCovidSC
Posts Replies Media Videos
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: bloodworms are venomous worms with super strong teeth that are partially made of copper, who evert their insides in order to catch prey
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Video: www.science.org/content/arti...
Close up of a bloodworms head from the side. It looks like a regular pink slightly shiny/wet penis-like worm but at the end of its head there are 4 black hooked teeth around the periphery of its mouth Image: https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(22)00153-9
November 28, 2025 at 7:43 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Colin Berry who ran the CISCO-21 resistance exercise in long COVID study has replied to my comment 👇🏻

Utterly predictable that he completely bypasses the point of my comment. 🧵
November 25, 2025 Author response to Carroll Colin Berry, BSc, MBChB, PhD | University of Glasgow Thank you for the interest in the CISCO-21 trial of resistance exercise post-COVID-19 infection. The research was undertaken following independent peer review and approval of a grant application followed by review and approval by a research ethics committee. The participants provided written informed consent. Enrollment was completed in line with the predefined plan as outlined in Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04900961) and with oversight by a steering group. Following analysis of the results by biostatisticians independent of the clinical research team, there was no evidence of post-exertional malaise (PEM) based on use of a validated questionnaire of PEM and no evidence of any adverse events relating to the resistance exercise. On the other hand, there was evidence of improved physical functioning based on the primary analysis and additional evidence of improvements in health-related quality of life and grip strength. This multicenter, prospective, randomized, controlled trial has provided new knowledge on therapy development for post-COVID-19 conditions and the results should be informative for future guidelines. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The CISCO-21 study was peer-reviewed and then funded by a Project Grant from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government. See article Disclosures.
November 28, 2025 at 5:59 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: a diagonal crease in each earlobe (Frank's sign) can be a sign of cardiovascular disease
www.amjmed.com/article/S000...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
www.internationaljournalofcardiology.com/article/S016...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Close up of an older mans ear, an arrow is pointing to a deep crease in his earlobe
November 26, 2025 at 8:01 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Saw this post (www.facebook.com/10605968/pos... 👇🏻) and it suitably intrigued me.

Recording here: www.youtube.com/live/ptzw8ef...

Honestly, this is how these things should go, even if it was fake niceties or whatever, we should be able to talk
Adam bates facebook post reading: This trump-mamdani press conference us absolutely fascinating. Mamdani plainly just charmed the shit out if trump and these maga reporters have no idea what to do with this buddy-buddy schtick. Trump even interrupts repeatedly to help him out of shitty questions while mamdani just stands there smiling. Its incredible. Just watch trumps body language
November 22, 2025 at 2:37 AM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: bagworm moth larvae encase themselves in silk & material oft ending up looking like a pile of twigs. Males emerge as moths but—depending on the species—females may never grow wings nor leave her case, even mating in it
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18767982/
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Bagworm moth case which looks like a stack of vertical twigs in a long tube shape Image: https://www.britannica.com/animal/Insects-That-Wear-Things Bagworm moth which looks like a tube made of long straight twigs, hanging from a tree Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagworm_moth A bagworm moth case that looks like a bit of tree with some twigs, hanging off a tree branch Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagworm_moth
November 20, 2025 at 9:17 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: lots of animals engage in homosexual sex & its a bit of a mystery from an evolution POV as to why. In insects, reasons may include mistaken identity, harming other males, practice, stealing food, dumping old sperm
sci-hub.3800808.com/10.1007/s002...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
side view of two brown male beetles having sex. one is mounted on top of the other
November 19, 2025 at 9:16 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: sunfish are related to pufferfish. You can see the similarities when they are babies 👇🏻

Images:
naturepl.com/stock-photo-...
phys.org/news/2020-07...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_s...
reddit.com/r/TheDepthsB...
A baby sunfish. It looks like a little round pale orange ball with black eyes and 9 white triangles coming off its circumference (on its back and down and around its belly), like a star A slightly older sunfish. Its top half is brown and spotty with a cream background and a plain cream belly. The belly looks elongated like its wearing a bib and its top half looks a bit more like a regular fish albeit with a truncated tail 2 panel image. The bottom panel shows 2 baby sunfish on a humans finger tip (palm up) they are probably less than a quarter of the size of a finger nail. The top panel shows an adult sunfish with a diver next to it. The sunfish from fin to fin is about the same height as the diver, and a bit longer than it is high
November 19, 2025 at 9:13 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: spittlebug nymphs consume a lot of nutrient-poor xylem sap which they poop out & mix with "farts" to make a sort of bubble wrap for protection, excreting up to ~200 x their weight in fluid per day
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/cuc...
White foamy bubbly stuff stuck to the stem of a plant Image: https://www.britannica.com/animal/Insects-That-Wear-Things
November 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Delighted to say my comment got published! 👇

There was a lot of critiques I considered about this study, but the problem is that if we critique an individual study, future studies can just avoid that particular critique. So I tried to take a different approach 🧵
Ethics of doing research against established clinical guidelines Harriet Carroll, PhD | Lund University I read with interest the study by Berry et al., investigating the effect of resistance exercise in patients with post-COVID-19 sequelae. However, this research raises wider ethical issues that are pervasive in long COVID research. Post-COVID-19 sequelae encompasses several, potentially co-occurring, subtypes: deconditioning particularly in the context of hospitalisation; direct organ damage; new-onset diagnosable disease(s); and/or new-onset currently unknown disease(s)/pathology(ies). Individual symptoms may overlap across groups but have different underlying pathophysiology; for example, fatigue could be caused by autoimmunity, hypercoagulability, lung damage, nervous system damage, etc. Conducting trials—even for rehabilitation—as if these were a homogenous group with unified needs is somewhat akin to grouping multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and dysautonomia patients together because they all suffer with fatigue, sensorimotor impairments, and cognitive dysfunction, and is therefore unhelpful. Berry et al., were aware of risks associated with exercise in some long COVID patients via discussion of post-exertional malaise (PEM) in both the participant information sheet (PIS) and manuscript. If assessed properly, PEM is the cardinal symptom of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME),[1] and in worst cases can cause permanent worsening. Accordingly, exercise—including under the premise of deconditioning—is contraindicated in ME, and NICE guidelines state any exercise programme should only be done under a ME specialist team.[2] There are no ME specialists in NHS Scotland nor the study team, as confirmed by personal correspondence with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, e.g. stating pulmonary rehabilitation physiotherapists were consulted. None of these points were explained in the PIS, nor were risks pertaining to other known pathophysiology commonly found in long COVID.[3] Therefore, by proxy, this trial contravened clinical guidelines which raises serious ethical issues—a problem that is unfortunately not unique to this study. Further, studies focused on rehabilitation without treating ongoing underlying pathology are generally unhelpful, just as it would be unethical to rehabilitate stroke patients without first treating the stroke. Post-hospitalisation rehabilitation in recovered but deconditioned patients is well-established, again raising ethical questions regarding the purpose of studies like that conducted by Berry et al. Regardless of study findings, it does not seem ethical to go against established clinical guidelines, particularly without specialist involvement/oversight. This also highlights problems with how studies are ethically reviewed as disease specialists are not necessarily present. Considering the overall lack of funding for diseases like ME and long COVID, it is imperative any grants are used for ethically sound, pathology-targeted, and clinically useful research.
November 19, 2025 at 6:13 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: once the male dog has fully penetrated the female, blood rushes to a gland in his penis locking it inside the female. In most dogs, doggy style then goes from mounting the female from behind ↙️, to standing butt to butt whilst ejaculation occurs ↘️
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_...
two wolves mating, with the male mounting the female from behind during sex in a position well known as "doggy style" two dogs standing butt-to-butt which is them technically having sex, known as knotting. the males penis is not visible in the picture but it is inserted and trapped inside the females vagina. the male dog is ginger and looking quite exhausted, whilst the female is white with ginger patches and looks quite chipper.
November 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: some tortoise beetle larvae also use a poop backpack, sometimes mixed with shed exoskeleton bits, for protection. To make the poopy pack, it extends its telescopic anus & literally shits on itself
zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1026...
www.livescience.com/animals/beet...
A tortoise beetle. The beetle is flat, black and smooth, and on its back is a large mass that kind of looks like dreadlocks Image: https://www.britannica.com/animal/Insects-That-Wear-Things Tortoise beetle from the side. It has a large black mass on its back made of poop, and its butt is a long tube that is reaching around to the poop on its back
November 18, 2025 at 10:08 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: when it comes to reproduction, sunfish go all in, squirting a figurative tonne of eggs where ever they are, making them the most fecund fish known
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/sites/defaul... fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atla... fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atla...
graph showing number of eggs produced by different fish: sturgeon: 2 million cod: 9 million tuna: 30 million sunfish: 300 million
November 17, 2025 at 6:30 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: Caddisfly larvae spin themselves a silk case, then add other material like sand, pebbles, leaves, & plastic (😥) to strengthen it. This helps protect from predators & strong water currents, & may help with respiration
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
A Caddisfly Larvae inside a protective wrap which looks like a brown knitted poop Image: https://www.britannica.com/animal/Insects-That-Wear-Things
November 17, 2025 at 6:26 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: based on historical accounts (and therefore not entirely verifiable) Thomas Wedders received a posthumous Guinness world record for having the longest nose, measuring ~19 cm (~7.5 inches)
guinnessworldrecords.com/world-record...
Image: weirdhistorian.com/a-short-stor...
A wax model of a mans head with an extraordinarily large nose
November 16, 2025 at 6:52 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: solenodons are venomous mammals whose nipples are next to its butthole
academic.oup.com/jmammal/arti...
smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...
A drawing of the rear end of a solenodon belly up, with its legs spayed outwards. There is a nipple on either side of its butthole
November 16, 2025 at 6:49 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: masked hunter nymphs eat things like bedbugs. To evade detection by prey & predators, they cover themselves in 2 layers of lint. The first layer is fine dusty stuff; the second is larger stuff, sometimes including the corpses of their prey 🙃
bioone.org/journals/Ame...
A masked hunter nymph. Looks like a bug with a bulbous body and 6 legs. It is grey and rough looking from the dust and lint etc its collected and covered itself in
November 16, 2025 at 6:48 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: if you ever feel life is shitting on you, spare a thought for the case-bearing leaf beetle. They start life as an egg then larvae covered in shit, before using the shit as a pupal case & are finally shit-free as adults
academic.oup.com/aesa/article...
www.britannica.com/animal/Insec...
A casebearing leaf beetle larvae with little insect legs and head poking out a long bulbous shell of dried poop
November 15, 2025 at 7:11 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
I have a lot of thoughts about this but mainly it's a bit of a stretch to call the following a "new protocol" when it's standard clinical practice from anyone with a bit of POTS knowledge:
Design: Exploratory prospective study to develop and test a DMP comprising of a) increased fluid intake b) increased salt intake c) regulate food amount and type and d) optimise physical/ cognitive/ emotional exertion to avoid crashes, e) calf muscle function and e) pharmacological agents in select cases of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) and Orthostatic Hypotension (OH).
November 14, 2025 at 11:06 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: green lacewing larvae also camouflage themselves in a ploy known as trash-carrying. They will find anything in their surroundings, from plant material to dead bug remains, to carry on their back and hide from predators
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
www.britannica.com/animal/Insec...
Green lace wing larvae. The bug is not really visible beyond some legs at the bottom, as on top is a big ball of white floof
November 14, 2025 at 6:46 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: Acanthaspis petax, a type of assassin bug (these guys: x.com/angryhacadem...), carry dead ants on their back, seemingly to help camouflage from predators
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...
An assassin bug with a ball of dead ants on its back
November 13, 2025 at 9:56 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
The 2nd thing @binitakane.bsky.social & I discussed was thirst. We barely scratched the surface of this fascinating appetite, explained more in this blog:
lc-sc.co.uk/bodily-syste...

Including:
Blood volume
Prostaglandins
Acetylcholine
Mast cells
Dopamine
Glutamate & other neurotransmitters 🧵
Cartoon of a lady lying in bed looking unwell. Around her is a cycle: symptom flare up / crash → more autonomic dysfunction → more RAS dysfunction → ↑ angiotensin 2 → ↑ thirst → drinking → prostaglandin E → ↑ malaise-related symptoms → symptom flare up/crash...etc
November 13, 2025 at 9:01 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: robber flies have an adorable little moustache called a mystax. Behind the adorableness is a vicious & venomous bug (not venomous enough to be a risk to humans beyond a painful bite if you provoke them)
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/biological-c...
Close up of a robber fly face - predominantly twi massive black eyes protruding from the sides of its head with a whit stripe down the middle. At the bottom of the white stripe is bristles which kind of look like a moustache Image: https://bugphoto.net/2012/10/19/big-burglar/
November 12, 2025 at 8:52 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Latest blog: I promised I'd write some blogs to break down our discussion (www.youtube.com/live/Ar0X_N3...) & go over things we didnt get through. The first thing we discussed was body water & hydration issues esp in POTS:

Body water regulation
lc-sc.co.uk/bodily-syste...

@binitakane.bsky.social
A running cartoon tap in the middle of a circular chain of events: drink water (no salt) → reduced blood concentration → block vasopressin release → increase urine output → lose body water (this is exacerbated due to RAS dysfunction) → increased thirst → drink...(cycle continues in a loop)
November 11, 2025 at 7:09 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: do you ever feel like someone is talking shit? Maybe they are blow fly maggot!

These little rascals have evolved termite "faces" on their butt giving them access to the termite colony, its food, and free grooming
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
A maggot butt which looks like a termite face with a little dot for each eye and antennas coming off the top
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: this 👇🏻 is a mola mola or sunfish. No it has not had its tail cut off, it is a plate-shaped blob that swims vertically, & cant close its mouth. It is unusual in many ways, cue a miniseries!
taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...
📸: newsweek.com/ocean-sunfis...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_s...
A sun fish. It looks like a round flat plate with two large fins, one of the top and one on the bottom. There is no tail, so it looks like the body ends very abruptly A sun fish. It looks like a round flat plate with two large fins, one of the top and one on the bottom. There is no tail, so it looks like the body ends very abruptly. This picture is more front on where you can see its open mouth
November 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM