> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.missingwitches.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # EP 60 Witches Found Covid Coven with WhiteFeather, Krista, Becca and Amelie - URL: https://www.missingwitches.com/covid-coven-with-whitefeather-krista-becca-and-amelie/ - Published: 2020-07-20T06:15:00.000Z - Updated: 2023-01-02T16:46:21.000Z - Description: We are four women battling COVID-19, from our homes in Montreal and Gatineau, Quebec and in Caen, France. We are artists and feminists bound together through our shared experiences of embodying a disease that has baffled the world. We were drawn together first through mutual acquaintances in the art - Author: Amy Torok - Tags: Podcast, Witches Found, #wp, #Import 2022-12-12 16:34, Embodied Magic, Activist Magic, STEM Magic ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b0/b2/b0b2b0c5-0324-4ded-8c78-fb468356e3e1/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/image02.jpg) Clockwise from top left: Amelie, Becca, WhiteFeather, Krista We are four women battling COVID-19, from our homes in Montreal and Gatineau, Quebec and in Caen, France. We are artists and feminists bound together through our shared experiences of embodying a disease that has baffled the world. We were drawn together first through mutual acquaintances in the art world, and then became more tightly bound by providing each other with essential support — through constant presence, witchy knowledge and unconventional care practices, in response to medical communities that have not been able to meet our needs. We are Amélie Deschamps, Becca Blackwood, Krista Muir and WhiteFeather Hunter. We share an eerie similarity of atypical symptoms not talked about in mainstream media, such as pericarditis and whole body neurological damage, along with the complications surrounding these serious ailments caused by COVID-19\. One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced has been fighting for our lives while being disbelieved or dismissed by doctors, family members and humanity at large. As feminists, we know that this is a pervasive problem for women navigating the medical landscape. We have believed in each other, and that has truly helped us survive and work towards recovery from this disease. What has also helped a great deal, has been an invaluable resource facilitated by a queer, feminist network based in NYC: The Body Politic COVID-19 Recovery Support Group. This group has gained over 5000 members just through word of mouth, including many medical professionals infected on the front lines, and has provided us with a wellspring of information, free resources and the kinds of validation we’ve needed. It has not escaped us that the most cutting edge, respectful and caring information about the disease has been made accessible through an intersectional, queer, feminist network. This whole thing has been dramatically life altering. We hope that the four of us can continue to heal together and also pave the way to help others who get sick after us. We hope to help others navigate the failures of the health care systems globally, all the while prioritizing mental health during these extremely unprecedented, scary times. Our stories: Becca Blackwood: I was in NYC starting up a community arts centre/ shop/ gallery with a friend in Brooklyn. I had moved to New York on March 1st, before anyone started paying attention too heavily to Coronavirus. I started feeling ‘off’ around March 10th. After the first event in our new gallery, NYC mayor, Bill De Blasio announced a state of emergency and Canadian PM, Justin Trudeau made an announcement telling Canadians to “come home”. I found my way back to Canada and went straight into isolation, while my symptoms continued to get worse. I had a fever, chills, splitting headaches, my body felt as if I had been hit by a truck and I couldn’t get out of bed for days. Then I started coughing and having trouble breathing. I also got a positive coronavirus test. The next 3 months were a rollercoaster: I was diagnosed with pericarditis, costochondritis, POTS, bradycardia (alternating), pleurisy, nodules on my lungs and liquid in my right lung. At around 4 weeks, my condition began rapidly declining and I experienced numerous other critical symptoms. One doctor said, “Let’s just hope you don’t have acute respiratory failure. I’m going to prescribe you an Oxymeter, and a blood pressure monitor for at home.” Another said, “We all think that you should be on low dose steroids right now because you are having a cytokine storm… but we are too afraid to give them to you. We are worried that if it triggers the covid in your body again, you might not make it. You need to look at this like you are being tortured, and meditate through it”. I felt that no one knew what was happening, no one wanted to intervene out of fear it would kill me, and I was being left completely alone at home to just ride it out and hopefully not die. There is nothing quite like having fear of the ‘plague’, then getting it and being the first coronavirus patient to most doctors you see, who all say, “We have no idea what to do. This is new territory, you are a guinea pig. Anything we do to treat you at this point IS experimental.” I now have multiple doctors for every organ, and my healing journey is a full time job. Krista Muir: I was in San Antonio, Texas, in the midst of touring my latest album. But when SXSW was cancelled and I heard tell of borders closing, I flew home early on March 14th and quarantined. A few days prior to leaving, I had a food poisoning feeling accompanied by mild fever, but it was hot in Texas and no one had yet started talking about the gastro-intestinal part of C19\. Back in Montréal, I had a persistent pain in my chest, but it was reminiscent of the one I’d had back in December 2019 (when I had all the classic C19 symptoms, interestingly). It worsened, so I consulted with my family doctor and had a CT scan to rule out lung issues. At this point, I was diagnosed with “possible” pericarditis. There was liquid around my heart, indicating inflammation and that I may be fighting a virus. I wanted to be tested for C19 but was refused because I had no classic symptoms and didn’t qualify. After being referred to a cardiologist, I had a barrage of tests – all “normal”. He offered no theories as to why it felt like there was painful burning glass dust in my chest, a sensation of my heart being constrained and random palpitations that were so strong it felt like my whole body was “thunking” (sometimes after a gentle walk, but also sometimes just sitting doing no activity), and tingling in my left hand and arm. Symptom-shifting was bizarre – one week it felt like icy liquid was swirling around my heart, the next, I’d have severe growing pain type aches in my legs. Sometimes my legs would just get flushed and red hot. All the while the glass chest “dust” remained. When I was finally eligible for a C-test it was negative. Thankfully after 90 days, I’m feeling good. WhiteFeather Hunter: I was in Perth, Australia working on a PhD. My partner, who was with me, traveled overseas for his father’s funeral and returned to Perth on March 8\. Four days later, we were both sick. His symptoms were barely noticeable, while I had sore throat, dry cough and difficulty breathing, among other things. He had flown Emirates to Australia via Dubai, and we found out days later that the same flights immediately before and after his had confirmed COVID cases, though no one contacted us about his specific flight. Australian authorities refused to test us since neither of us had fever, nor had we been in contact with a “confirmed” case. We were forced to return to Canada at the beginning of April, and then after suffering crushing chest pain and a new cough, I was finally tested. This was almost a full month after the onset of my initial symptoms, and of course, the test was negative! I was diagnosed with pericarditis. But then began a months-long hell, including a close brush with death followed by a steady onslaught of medical poking and prodding to try to figure out what was wrong with me. Doctors were perplexed, claiming my symptoms couldn’t all possibly be related, because they didn’t fit the narrow set of symptoms in the COVID-19 model. I suffered deep inner tremors, shooting nerve pain, accelerated heart rate and palpitations, stabbing chest pain, body temperature deregulation, inflammation in multiple areas of my body, lung constriction and difficulty breathing, blood clots, intestinal agony, rapid weight loss and numerous other bizarre things. I only really started to improve after day 90, but some of my symptoms still remain. I have never had a fever. Circulated by a group on the Body Politic COVID Recovery Support Group: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Es3HoRIldVZ9H2\_2Xrcz5gqTKEIyIhyY/view](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Es3HoRIldVZ9H2%5F2Xrcz5gqTKEIyIhyY/view?ref=missingwitches.com) OPEN LETTER: Dr. Theresa Tam Dr. Robert Strang Chief Public Health Officer Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Nova Scotia Dr. Bonnie Henry Dr. Jennifer Wylie-Russell Provincial Health Officer Chief Medical Officer of Health British Columbia New Brunswick Dr. Deena Hinshaw Dr. Heather Morrison Chief Medical Officer of Health Chief Health Officer Alberta Prince Edward Island Dr. Saqib Shahab Dr. Janice Fitzgerald Chief Medical Health Officer Chief Medical Officer of Health Saskatchewan Newfoundland and Labrador Dr. Brent Roussin Dr. Brendan Hanley Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Chief Medical Officer of Health Manitoba Yukon Dr. David Williams Dr. Kami Kandola Chief Medical Officer of Health Chief Public Health Officer Ontario Northwest Territories Dr. Horacio Arruda Dr. Michael Patterson National Director of Public Health Chief Public Health Officer Quebec Nunavut June 30, 2020 Dear Doctors, We are a group of Canadians and permanent residents who have all experienced, or are still experiencing, symptoms of COVID-19 for months. Without any medical answers or insight into our condition, we are left living in limbo, unable to access treatment and therapies, and filled with uncertainty about our futures. We are calling on you as the leaders of Canada’s public health response to COVID-19 to establish and coordinate research into long-term illness caused by COVID-19, to ensure that medical support and care is provided to those who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms for many weeks and months, and to implement effective standards for a presumptive diagnosis of COVID-19 for patients without a positive test. We also call for greater public awareness of the potential for prolonged symptoms and for public health guidelines to be updated to ensure that physicians, policy makers, and employers are aware that some individuals experience long COVID-19 illnesses. Research Initial guidelines provided by the World Health Organization and various Centers for Disease Control around the world all stated that recovery for mild cases would take two weeks. However, many of us have had cases that did not require hospitalization and yet we are having persistent symptoms three, four, even five months after symptom onset. We are not alone. Reports have emerged from Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States of patients with similar patterns of prolonged illness. Some of us have experienced periods of being asymptomatic followed by the return of symptoms. Others have had new symptoms develop over time, and still others have experienced symptoms consistently without a break since the onset of our illness. COVID-19 is a new illness. Not only are the actual national or regional infection rates unknown, but there is no solid data on prolonged cases of COVID-19 illness. However, there is reason to believe that the number of people experiencing prolonged symptoms is not a tiny minority of COVID-19 cases. Data collected by the COVID Symptom Study app in the UK, which asked people to voluntarily enter their symptoms into an online app, suggests that 1 in 10 cases of individuals with COVID-19 symptoms experience those symptoms for three weeks or longer.1 A Swedish phone survey conducted in early May found that nearly one-third of randomly sampled Swedes who reported experiencing at least one symptom of COVID-19 had been experiencing those symptoms for ten weeks or more.2 Public health guidance in Canada has directed people who are not critical to manage their symptoms at home to ease the burden on the medical system. As a result, many Canadians have not contacted their doctors despite experiencing ongoing symptoms. Others have tried to seek medical care and been dismissed, either for not having a positive test or because they are told COVID-19 does not last beyond two weeks. It is therefore impossible to say how many Canadians are experiencing a lingering COVID-19 illness or longer-term, possibly permanent, disability as a result of the illness. The symptoms that we are experiencing affect every part of the body, and include: • Fever and profuse sweating; • A sore or scratchy throat; sneezing; runny, dry, or stuffed up nose; and sinus pain; • Persistent cough, shortness of breath, and lung pain; • Chest pain and pressure, including a bubbling or burning sensation in the chest, a stabbing sensation in the chest, costochondritis, and pleurisy; • Heart issues including pericarditis, myocarditis, tachycardia, bradycardia, and arrhythmia; • Neurological issues, including headaches, dizziness, brain fog, orthostatic intolerance, vasovagal syncope, loss of taste and smell, metallic taste, sore tongue, tinnitus, and light and sound sensitivity; • Swollen glands and lymph nodes; • Skin rashes and sores, random bruising, mucosal membrane sores, and esophageal burning; • Tingling and numbness in face, hands and feet, or neuropathy; • Muscle aches and soreness, muscle weakness, and severe muscle and joint pain; 1 COVID Symptom Study, “How Long Does COVID-19 Last?” June 8, 2020, https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/covid- long-term. 2 Novus, Coronastatus 0511, https://novus.se/coronastatus-0511/. • Conjunctivitis, dry eyes, and vision issues; • Extreme fatigue, and insomnia or difficulty sleeping; • Gastrointestinal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and bloating. Secondary infections such as thrush, strep, urinary tract infections, and skin infections are also common. There are many theories as to what might be causing our ongoing symptoms, including persistent viral infection, an immune overreaction to dead viral RNA, molecular mimicry, dysautonomia, post-viral fatigue, the reactivation of dormant viruses within the body by COVID-19, and the onset of new illnesses such as diabetes. However, these are all very different conditions that require differing therapeutic approaches. Patients and doctors can’t know what the best treatment to pursue is without an adequate understanding of the cause. We also don’t know when it is safe for us to be around others. Medical advice in some provinces has been to self-isolate for either fourteen days or until 24 hours or 72 hours after symptoms have resolved. Some of us have been having symptoms without a break for months, afraid to be around our own family members for fear of transmitting the virus to them. Others have had symptoms go away for days or even weeks only to have them reappear again. When this happens, we don’t know whether we need to self-isolate again to protect people around us. It is difficult mentally, emotionally, and physically to self- isolate for months with no end in sight. We are also deeply worried about transmitting the illness to our loved ones or our communities. There also needs to be research into the average duration of COVID-19 symptoms in order to better understand what recovery looks like and provide appropriate guidance to physicians, employers, and public officials. In addition to understanding what therapeutic needs COVID-19 survivors have, policymakers and employers need to understand how much sick time might be required to fully recover or what kinds of accommodations and supports might need to accompany a return-to-work. Public screening guidelines need to account for the fact that an individual might have symptoms for months, which creates challenges for accessing medical care and other essential services. Medical support To ask someone to self-isolate at home and manage their own symptoms without medical support for two weeks and for five months are two very different prospects. It is not reasonable to ask people with such extensive physical symptoms and such a prolonged illness to go without medical support. We need family doctors and emergency room physicians alike to have a greater awareness of the havoc this virus is causing throughout our bodies. We need access to medical tests, in addition to symptom management and care. We have been trying, for months, to deal with symptoms that are often severe and scary, and that significantly affect quality of life. Some of us continue to visit the Emergency Department with heart issues, neurological issues, or shortness of breath months after the onset of symptoms. Some of us are formerly fit athletes who are still unable to walk around the block or up stairs due to stabbing chest pain, shortness of breath, and postural tachycardia months after initial illness. Seeking medical care from personal care physicians has been challenging as many are only offering telephone consultations. Some of us have received supportive care, but many of us have had the experience of being told by our family doctor or a specialist that there’s nothing they can do for us despite persistent coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, or chronic gastrointestinal issues. As a result, some of us have spent hundreds of dollars on supplements and alternative care practitioners such as naturopaths to try to gain some symptom relief. Often doctors and specialists are compassionate but admit that they simply don’t know why COVID-19 affects the body the way it does and are unable to offer any assistance. However, many of us have also had the experience of being dismissed as having anxiety rather than having our symptoms taken seriously. We have been told that our symptoms can’t possibly be related to COVID-19 because: • We didn’t meet the restrictive criteria for testing that was in place in March and April; • We haven’t traveled internationally or been exposed to a known case; • Some doctors don’t believe that COVID-19 illnesses persist beyond 2-6 weeks; or • We had a negative COVID-19 test (despite the fact that the rate of false negatives is known to be high and the risk of having a false negative increases with the amount of time that has passed after symptom onset). This lack of support from the medical community causes great psychological harm and stress, which can exacerbate our physical symptoms. Furthermore, many of us fall into a gray area of not having a positive test or a recent exposure but still having COVID-19 symptoms. This means that many medical services and other health and wellness appointments are not available to us. We can’t go to the dentist or get a massage. We can’t have in- person appointments with our primary care physicians. We are in limbo, unsure if we are infectious but unable to pass a screening questionnaire. Physicians and health care facilities, meanwhile, are struggling to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to allow individuals with symptoms to access their services. Presumptive diagnosis For many reasons, access to testing was extremely limited across Canada during the early phase of the pandemic. Many of us did not qualify for early testing. Some of us had doctors confirm that we likely had COVID-19 but were told to stay home and manage our symptoms rather than seeking testing. Some had to fight for several weeks to access a test, arguing that our symptoms merited a diagnosis. As a result, many of us have never been tested. Some of us were tested but only weeks after symptom onset. Research has shown that the timing of the test can significantly affect the results, with the likelihood of receiving a false negative dramatically increasing nine days after symptom onset. By Day 21, the likelihood of a false negative is 66%.3 A throat or nasal swab also cannot determine whether the virus might be present elsewhere in the body. Despite these limitations, doctors continue to be influenced by negative tests results in spite of the swabs having been done weeks after symptom onset to either tell us that we never had COVID-19 or that our ongoing symptoms can’t possibly be COVID-19 related any longer. Similar questions are being raised about the accuracy of COVID-19 antibody tests. There is also early research emerging which suggests that not everyone who had a COVID-19 infection develops 3 Lauren M. Kucirka, Stephen A. Lauer, Oliver Laeyendecker, Denali Boon, and Justin Lessler, Variation in False- Negative Rate of Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction–Based SARS-CoV-2 Tests by Time Since Exposure. Annals of Internal Medicine (2020). https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-1495. antibodies.4 We are very concerned about reports from France, the UK, and the US that COVID-19 antibody tests are also being used to deny diagnosis and medical treatment to COVID-19 patients. The accuracy of tests and the newness of the virus both argue in favour of also using a presumptive diagnosis, rather than just testing, to identify COVID-19 patients. However, the extreme limitations that were placed on testing in the early months of the pandemic demand that a presumptive diagnosis be adopted. Otherwise, too many Canadians in need of medical care will be and are being excluded. Although there is limited data so far, evidence from a comprehensive survey of long-term COVID-19 illnesses conducted by patients themselves suggests that there is no difference in the pattern of symptoms between those who tested positive and those who tested negative or were not able to access a test.5 Adopting a standard but comprehensive list of symptoms, in combination with factors such as a pattern of relapse/recovery, exposure to known cases, and timing of illness onset, could result in a presumptive diagnosis that will allow individuals to participate in research and access medical care. In addition to access to medical care, we are concerned about the implications of not using a presumptive diagnosis for access to sick leave and income security programs such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. When employers don’t understand that COVID-19 can be a very lengthy illness and demand a medical note; when public programs such as the CERB and Employment Insurance require a medical note for sick leave; and when penalties are being implemented for fraud and misrepresentation, we are very concerned that some of us can’t access a diagnosis and appropriate medical care. This will force people back to work before they are ready, putting their long-term health at risk and potentially putting the health and safety of others at risk. There also needs to be acknowledgement of how many people became ill in the early weeks of the pandemic when access to testing was extremely limited and the struggle we have waged since to obtain a diagnosis and official recognition that our illness and ongoing symptoms are COVID-19. Our experience We are different ages and ethnicities, coming from different regions across the country, with different career fields. Some of us were extremely healthy before getting sick; others had chronic health conditions. Our symptoms have varied; some of us have been and still are seriously ill, while others are dealing with lingering or occasional symptoms. Some of us have children and family members with similar symptoms and ongoing health issues; others have experienced this journey alone. What we all share in common is an extremely prolonged experience of COVID-19 symptoms and a need for answers and medical support. 4 Payne DC, Smith-Jeffcoat SE, Nowak G, et al. SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Serologic Responses from a Sample of U.S. Navy Service Members — USS Theodore Roosevelt, April 2020\. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:714– 1. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6923e4 5 Patient-Led Research for COVID-19, Report: What Does COVID-19 Recovery Actually Look Like?, May 11, 2020, https://patientresearchcovid19.com/research/report-1/. Name Date of Symptom Onset Date of Test (If Applicable) Test Outcome Has Sought Medical Care Received Supportive Medical Care Referred to Specialist Number of Weeks of Symptoms Scott H.F. December 26 May 26 Negative Yes No No 26 Donna I. February 15 March 17 Negative Yes No No 18 Michelle T. March 1 n/a n/a Yes No No 17 Kate G. March 6 n/a n/a Yes Yes/No No 16 Elisa H. March 10 May 22 Negative Yes Yes Yes 16 Ken B. March 11 n/a n/a Yes No No 16 Lianne C. March 11 March 19 Negative Yes Yes No 16 Maryam P. March 12 March 20 Negative Yes Yes/No No 16 WhiteFeather H. March 12 April 9 Negative Yes Yes/No Yes 16 Craig T. March 13 March 16 Negative Yes Yes/No Yes 16 Laurence B. March 13 April 14 Negative Yes Yes Yes 16 Jaymie F. March 15 May 3/ June 9 Negative Yes No/Yes Yes 15 Tracey T. March 15 March 18 Negative Yes No No 15 Chandra P. March 16 April 15 Negative Yes Yes Yes 15 David H. March 16 March 30/ April 20 Negative Yes No No 15 Libby K. March 16 n/a n/a Yes No No 15 Brent W. March 17 April 2 Negative Yes Yes Yes 15 Sean H. March 17 March 21 Positive Yes Yes Yes 15 Emily S. March 18 May 22 Negative Yes No/Yes No 15 Matt H. March 18 n/a n/a No No No 15 Jenn H. March 19 March 25 Positive Yes Yes Yes 15 Louise K. March 19 May 4 Negative yes No No 15 Sara H. March 19 March 25 Positive Yes Yes No 15 Stephanie Ann H. March 19 n/a n/a Yes No No 15 Renee R. March 20 April 20 Negative Yes Yes/No Yes 15 Heather H. March 21 May 21 Negative Yes Yes No 15 Karen K. March 21 n/a n/a Yes Yes Yes 15 Robertino C. March 21 March 31 Negative Yes Yes No 15 Susie G. March 21 June 2 Negative Yes No Yes 15 Emily B. March 24 March 30 Positive Yes Yes Yes 14 Michele G. March 24 April 21 Negative No No No 14 Heather W. March 25 April 21 Negative Yes Yes Yes 14 Helen A. March 26 June 5 Negative Yes Yes No 14 John B. March 27 April 10 Negative Yes No/Yes No 14 Julie M. March 28 April 7/ April 11/ May 4 Negative Yes Yes Yes 14 Nada F. March 15 March 29 Negative Yes Yes Yes 13 Adrien R. March 21 n/a n/a Yes No Yes 13 Erwin N. March 29 May 6 Negative Yes Yes Yes 13 Name Date of Symptom Onset Date of Test (If Applicable) Test Outcome Has Sought Medical Care Received Supportive Medical Care Referred to Specialist Number of Weeks of Symptoms Elaine M. April 4 May 29 Negative Yes Yes Yes – 5! 13 Deanna G. March 16 April 7 Negative Yes Yes No 12 Nicolas B. March 27 June 6 Negative Yes Yes/No No 12 Chantal R. April 15 April 21 Negative Yes Yes Yes 11 Cheryl C. April 19 April 23 Positive Yes Yes No 10 Jade D. April 23 April 25 Positive Yes Yes No 10 Helen F. April 30 May 1 Positive No No No 8 Michele P. May 1 May 4 Negative Yes No No 8 We ask you to urgently address these concerns: to commence research into long-term COVID-19 illnesses, to ensure that medical support and care are provided to those who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms for many weeks, and to implement standards for a presumptive diagnosis of COVID-19 for patients without a positive test. Thank you for your attention and support, as well as all of the hard work you are doing to guide Canada through this unprecedented public health situation. If we can assist you in any way, please know that we are ready and willing to do so. You can contact us at LongHaulCovidCanada@gmail.com. Sincerely, Adrien Robertson Heather Howey Louise Kelaher Amanda MacKay Heather Welch Maryam Patel Amy Bronson Helen Abbott Matt Helleman Brenda Peters Helen Feng Michele Girash Brent Williams Jade Dominica Clark Michele Pomerant Chandra Pasma Jaymie Firkus Michelle Taylor Chantal Renaud Jenn Hart Nada Forbes Cheryl Clark John Baker Nicholas Bean Craig Tomkow Julie Mathieu Renee Reusz David Hardisty Julie Skuse Robertino Cosentini Deanna Garton Karen Kilba Sara Handrigan Donna Ingratta Kate Gilmour Scott Harrison Ferrari Dwayne Pereira Ken Borg Sean Hoskin Elaine McCartney Laurence Boccaccio Stephanie Ann Hayne Elisa Harvey-LaPlante Lianne Chu Susie Goulding Emily Bodechon Libby Kennedy Tracey Thompson Emily Shepard Lorraine Knourek WhiteFeather Hunter