Ask the doctor.
Question I've read that the death rate from COVID-19 is decreasing, but individuals who recuperate from the infection will be sick for a very long time. Is it true?
Oh That's true, but we don't yet know the way big the issue is: COVID-19 has only been with us for a 12 months, and there hasn't been enough time to know the long-term effects.
When people first began getting sick with COVID, doctors thought it mainly affected the lungs. Unfortunately, we soon learned that it may also affect the center, kidneys, brain, and other organs. This surprised a lot of us. In late February 2020, a previously healthy 30-year-old man I knew told me he was running a fever, had seizures, and was concerned he might need COVID. I reassured her, but I used to be unsuitable and the patient was right. Within the subsequent 4 weeks, doctors around the globe were reporting brain abnormalities in individuals with COVID.
Some previously healthy individuals who survived COVID have been left with evidence of heart and kidney injury. It is simply too early to know if the damage is everlasting and if it should affect their level of labor.
There are also individuals who have survived COVID with no evidence of heart, kidney or brain injury – but who’ve never returned to full health. They still have fatigue, body aches, difficulty respiratory, difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise, headaches and trouble sleeping. Some studies have found that greater than 50% of people who find themselves “recovered” from COVID still have symptoms three months later. They cannot return to work. They are unable to satisfy their responsibilities at home. They are being called “long howlers”. Such prolonged symptoms have been reported after “recovery” from plenty of other infectious diseases, including mononucleosis, Lyme disease, and SARS (one other disease brought on by the coronavirus). So, it's not surprising that this disease — much like a disease called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome — develops after COVID.
In other words, while fewer individuals who get COVID are dying, not all of them are recovering. We don't know the way many individuals can be incarcerated for a very long time. But it's comprehensible that tens of hundreds within the United States may never be the identical again.
The first reported cases of COVID within the United States and South Korea occurred on the identical day. South Korea implemented containment strategies developed by the US CDC. America didn’t. Since then (as I write this), the United States has had 50 times more deaths per capita from Covid than South Korea. So we are able to have 50 times longer haulers. And the US economy has shrunk, while South Korea's has grown. Bad mistakes rarely cause only temporary damage.
Photo: © Wilson Araujo/Getty Images
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