WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-begin-to-crack-covids-mysterious-long-term-effects-11604252961 Nearly a year into the global coronavirus pandemic, scientists, doctors and patients are beginning to unlock a puzzling phenomenon: For many patients, including young ones who never required hospitalization, Covid-19 has a devastating second act. Many are dealing with symptoms weeks or months after they were expected to recover, often with puzzling new complications that can affect the entire body—severe fatigue, cognitive issues and memory lapses, digestive problems, erratic heart rates, headaches, dizziness, fluctuating blood pressure, even hair loss. What is surprising to doctors is that many such cases involve people whose original cases weren’t the most serious, undermining the assumption that patients with mild Covid-19 recover within two weeks. Doctors call the condition “post-acute Covid” or “chronic Covid,” and sufferers often refer to themselves as “long haulers” or “long-Covid” patients. “Usually, the patients with bad disease are most likely to have persistent symptoms, but Covid doesn’t work like that,” said Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care at the University of Oxford and the lead author of an August BMJ study that was among the first to define chronic Covid patients as those with symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks and spanning multiple organ systems. For many such patients, she said, “the disease itself is not that bad,” but symptoms like memory lapses and rapid heart rate sometimes persist for months. The Wall Street Journal asked four patients to share their stories about how Covid’s lingering effects are affecting their lives. In October, the National Institutes of Health added a description of such cases to its Covid-19 treatment guidelines, saying doctors were reporting Covid-19-related long-term symptoms and disabilities in people with milder illness. “You don’t realize how lucky you are with your health until you don’t have it,” said Elizabeth Moore, a 43-year-old lawyer and mother of three in Valparaiso, Ind. Pre-Covid-19 she was an avid skier and did boot-camp workouts several times a week. Since falling ill in March, she has been struggling with symptoms including memory problems and gastrointestinal issues. She has lost nearly 30 pounds. Estimates about the percentage of Covid-19 patients who experience long-haul symptoms range widely. A recent survey of more than 4,000 Covid-19 patients found that about 10% of those age 18 to 49 still struggled with symptoms four weeks after becoming sick, that 4.5% of all ages had symptoms for more than eight weeks, and 2.3% had them for more than 12 weeks. The study, which hasn’t yet been peer reviewed, was performed using an app created by the health-science company Zoe in cooperation with King’s College London and Massachusetts General Hospital. Another preliminary study looking mostly at nonhospitalized Covid patients found that about 25% still had at least one symptom after 90 days. A European study found about one-third of 1,837 nonhospitalized patients reported being dependent on a caregiver about three months after symptoms started. With more than 46 million cases world-wide, even the lower estimates would translate into millions living with long-term, sometimes disabling conditions, increasing the urgency to study this patient population, researchers said. What they find could have implications for how clinicians define recovery and what therapies they prescribe, doctors said. Doctors say anxiety caused by social isolation and uncertainty surrounding the pandemic may exacerbate symptoms, though that isn’t likely the primary cause. Other viral outbreaks, including the original SARS, MERS, Ebola, H1N1 and the Spanish flu, have been associated with long-term symptoms. Scientists reported that some patients experienced fatigue, sleep problems and joint and muscle pain long after their bodies cleared a virus, according to a recent review chronicling the long-term effects of viral infections. What differentiates Covid-19 is the far-reaching nature of its effects. While it starts in the lungs, it often affects many other parts of the body, including the heart, kidneys and the digestive and nervous systems, doctors said. “I haven’t really seen any other illness that affects so many different organ systems in as many different ways as Covid does,” said Zijian Chen, medical director for Mount Sinai Health System’s Center for Post-Covid Care. Zijian Chen, director of Mount Sinai's Center for Post-Covid Care, described colleagues who were energetic, but after getting sick, had trouble getting through the day. He described colleagues who were energetic, but after getting sick, had trouble getting through the day. He said he has seen up close how Covid-19 still affects their ability to do the things they love. ...
> The study, which hasn’t yet been peer reviewed, was performed using an app created by the health-science company Zoe in cooperation with King’s College London and Massachusetts General Hospital. Lol. Looks like journalists are having hard time creating articles.
I am guessing that you have political reasons not to want a discussion about long covid, but please just fuck off. This affects a lot of people.
looks like you have never worked as a researcher before. It's not about a political bullshit, it's about the science.
More research needed. With 7 months of inactivity, I'd say a good number of people's health is declining, mentally and physically. So many are stuck inside with no social life right now. All this has such a negative effect on yourself. Reminder to get outside and get some exercise! (even if indoors 🙂)
The study compared a control group to the covid group so both the subjects and the control would have the same impact of inactivity but only the covid group had these long term symptoms. Which is not to say that inactivity may be causing other health problems. That said the study is still in process of peer review so maybe the reviewers will find problems, it's preliminary at this point. However it matches up with a lot of anecdotal data including the experiences that several people have posted here on blind. It seems to be not uncommon for some people to have long lasting, varied symptoms.
Hair loss - that’s me
Yeah this is scary stuff. Thanks for sharing. The long COVID Twitter is scary.
Assuming this is true, why should I or anyone care?
You might find it hard to keep a job at a top tech company if you "recover" but suffer from confusion, memory loss, etc.
I can suffer confusion and memory loss, etc. from all sorts of things. Things that are much more mundane and common than covid. Why should we care more about impacts of a new source of injury? Is it because we have become accustomed to other sources of injury (with long term impact) and don’t view them as risks, where covid is new, which puts its risks more in focus?
Don’t worry, once Biden wins mainstream media will take this covid news off from their agenda, and we need to find a new way to attribute those symptoms to.
Actually they won't. Stop believing Trump. COVID is going to get a lot worse.
Wait and see... no covid news in media after March/April.
I'm a covid long hauler. My symptoms started in the third week of March. I live in NYC, and this was the time when we were told NOT to where masks. I am(was) a healthy 32 year old with no pre existing conditions. The acute phase of the illness lasted three weeks and it's the sickest I've ever been. On day three, I was so short of breath that I had to call an ambulance nto take me to the ER. Because my oxygen saturation was good, I wasn't admitted. I live alone and my symptoms started getting worse. I went to the ER 4 more times, I wanted to be admitted because the fatigue was so bad that just walking to the bathroom would tire me for hours. After the acute phase, I entered the chronic long haul phase. The list of symptoms is so large that I can't post them here. There are thousands like me. After eight months, even though I'm better, I'm no where back to baseline. This is real. 10-20% of infected people become long haulers. There's no hidden agenda, this is not political. For your own safety, please take all precautions, regardless of your age and health.
Sorry to hear that. Here I am 1 and half month after covid. Still experiencing symptoms like sever fatigue, palpitations. Its scary to know that ppl are still experiencing symptoms after 1 year or more. May I know how much have you recovered after 8 months (in terms of percentage)?
So much for all the bullshit about having covid parties and to just get it and get over with. I've already experienced the same as pixel and can attest to having the same symptoms. Covid has permanently changed me for the worse and I'm not sure if I will ever be able to fully recover
fatigue, inability to concentrate and heart problems are symptoms of lockdowns and inactive/unhealthy lifestyle in general. 40 million people die in consequences of these each year. imagine if the mainstream media knew about this, lol
sHoW mE tHe rEsEarCh tHaT sAyS lOckdOwNs aRe cAuSinG tHis
But without covid I already have problem including fatigue, inability to concentrate.
You are a pre-covid patient
Getting covid might make you active and focused