“Now I need to rest for a day or two before and after going to the grocery store, and I have scary cognitive glitches-I can’t do simple math, and I’ll put food that belongs in the fridge in the pantry. “I used to spend hours rehabbing houses,” she says. Two years later, she wonders whether she’ll ever be well again. I figured it wouldn’t be long before I returned to my usual busy life.” ( Prevention changed her name to protect her privacy.) Bad mistakes rarely lead to only temporary damage.By the time Kristin Hill, an interior designer in Baltimore, was diagnosed with COVID-19, she’d felt crummy for several weeks, but she wasn’t terribly worried, though vaccinations were not yet widely available then, in September 2020. economy has shrunk, while South Korea's has grown. We could therefore have 50 times more long haulers, too. Since then (as of the time I write this), the United States has had 50 times more deaths per capita from COVID than South Korea. South Korea implemented containment strategies that were developed by the U.S. The first reported cases of COVID in the United States and South Korea occurred on the same day. But it is plausible that tens of thousands in the United States may never be the same again. We don't know how many people will remain hobbled, long-term. In other words, while fewer people who get COVID are dying, not all of them are recovering. So, it is not surprising that this illness - which is similar to the illness called myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome - develops following COVID. They are being called "long haulers." Such lingering symptoms have been reported following "recovery" from a number of other infectious illnesses, including mononucleosis, Lyme disease, and SARS (another disease caused by a coronavirus). They can't fulfill their responsibilities at home. Some studies find that more than 50% of people who "recovered" from COVID remain hobbled by these symptoms three months later. They still have fatigue, body aches, shortness of breath, difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise, headache, and trouble sleeping. There also are people who survived COVID and have no evidence of injury to the heart, kidneys, or brain - but who nevertheless have not returned to full health. It is too soon to know whether the damage is permanent and whether it will affect their level of function. Some previously healthy people who survived COVID have been left with evidence of injury to the heart and kidneys. Within the next four weeks, doctors around the world were reporting various brain conditions in people with COVID. I reassured him, but I was wrong and the patient was right. In late February 2020, a previously healthy 30-year-old man I knew told me he had been running fevers, had experienced a seizure, and was worried he might have COVID. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that it also could affect the heart, kidneys, brain, and other organs. When people first started getting sick with COVID, doctors thought that it affected primarily the lungs. It is true, but we don't yet know how big the problem is: COVID-19 has been with us for only a year, and there hasn't been enough time to know the long-term effects. I read that the death rate from COVID-19 is going down, but that people who recover from the infection still can remain sick for a long time.
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