Should People Be More Worried About Long COVID Coronavirus HEAD TOPICS

Should People Be More Worried About Long COVID

10/21/2022 9:02:00 PM

It s not always possible to predict which patients will get Long COVID

Coronavirus 2019 Novel Coronavirus

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Medscape

It s not always possible to predict which patients will get Long COVID Eric Topol, MD, discusses how people should be thinking about long COVID when they consider their COVID risk. affects at least 13% of peopleEric J. Topol, MD:It chiefly affects people with mild to moderate COVID. People in their 30s and 40s are the group that are showing up with these protracted symptoms. They can be quite debilitating. There's only one surefire way of preventing it, which is not getting infected. The vaccine and boosters provide some protection, but it's not entirely clear whether it's 50% (more or less). But there is some protection, and that's another reason to stay up with vaccines and boosters. Read more:
Medscape » New COVID Subvariants Rising: How Concerned Should We Be? Juneau’s hospital to end COVID-19 testing and treatment services COVID researchers infect mice with different strains — and some are way more deadly than others Study: If you had COVID, several of your organs could be aging 3-4 years faster

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The pop star revisits her best—and boldest—outfits over her career. Read more >> Sure it is…they are fully up to date on their COVID boosters! New COVID Subvariants Rising: How Concerned Should We Be?There is concern that COVID-19 virus subvariants BQ.1 and BQ1.1 will become a major threat in the US and that XBB could alter the COVID picture globally. At this point, infectious disease experts have only predictions. MedTwitter 🤣🤣🤣…in the vaxxed, who have weakened immune systems! Juneau’s hospital to end COVID-19 testing and treatment servicesJuneau's Bartlett Regional Hospital will close its COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy clinic on Oct. 24 and its drive-through COVID testing site in mid-November. PCR testing will still be available through SEARHC and Juneau Urgent Care. COVID researchers infect mice with different strains — and some are way more deadly than othersBoston COVID researchers have combined the omicron variant spike protein with the original virus, testing the created strain on mice “to help fight against future pandemics.” Study: If you had COVID, several of your organs could be aging 3-4 years fasterA lead scientist behind a long-COVID study says getting infected multiple times could also worsen the aging process. COVID subvariants: What to know and should you be concerned?In Oct. 12, there were more than 1.66 million COVID-19 cases recorded across the continent up from more than 1.53 million cases recorded in Oct. 5. LOCKDOWN COMING SOON Well the smart survive...works for me. If you are healthy, no. If you have chronic health issues, a little. If you're near Boston College, it may not mater....😂🤣 This transcript has been edited for clarity.-  Medscape.“For the entire month of September, we only had 8 appointments filled, and we offer around 48 appointments per month,” Bartlett’s community relations director Erin Hardin said.October 19, 2022 at 9:52 a. Maggie Fox: Welcome. I'm Maggie Fox, consulting editor to WebMD and Medscape. I'm here with Dr Eric Topol, editor-in-chief at Medscape. In mid-November, the hospital is also getting rid of its drive-through COVID testing site. We're talking about long COVID, which affects at least 13% of people after they've been infected with COVID, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That adds up to millions of people who could be affected by severe fatigue, heart symptoms, brain symptoms (known commonly as brain fog), and a range of other problems. The scientists in BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories found that all mice infected with only the BA. There's no specific treatment, and it's not clear how long some of these people will be sick. Share this story: Get notifications about news related to the topics you care about. Yet, Americans in general appear to have largely given up on protecting themselves from COVID. Dr Topol, I wanted to talk to you about that. Is that something people should be thinking about when they're deciding what their own risks are? Eric J. Breaking news. Topol, MD: Well, first, Maggie, it's great to be with you, particularly on this important topic. This study provides important insights into omicron’s ability to cause disease, according to the researchers. Long COVID is not getting nearly enough regard of its importance and, as you mentioned, the lack of any treatment. It's a really vexing situation where we have millions of people, and we don't have anything to offer except supportive type things. The real issue here is that at the moment, we aren't doing enough to give the recognition to these people that this is a serious matter that we want to avoid. The only way to avoid long COVID is to not get infected, or, if you've had COVID, to not get infected again because there's still risk even if you've had a prior infection. Why should you go all out to keep yourself protected? Because you don't want to get this, and the problem is that it's unpredictable. It chiefly affects people with mild to moderate COVID. People in their 30s and 40s are the group that are showing up with these protracted symptoms. They can be quite debilitating. There's only one surefire way of preventing it, which is not getting infected. The vaccine and boosters provide some protection, but it's not entirely clear whether it's 50% (more or less). But there is some protection, and that's another reason to stay up with vaccines and boosters. Fox: So what I hear you saying is that people can't predict if they're going to be the ones who get long COVID or not. Being young and healthy doesn't protect you. Topol: Right. I haven't had COVID, and I don't want to get COVID. I'm an older person, but I'm not as afraid of dying from it or even of the hospitalization as much as I am of getting long COVID because it's unpredictable. We know a bunch of the triggers for our immune systems going haywire, such as persistence of the virus in reservoirs in our body or remnants of the virus or autoimmunity that's set off by the infection. We know some of the biology of this condition and how it resembles myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome. We know that much, but the problem is that it's a roulette wheel. If you get the infection, even if you start getting better days later, you could, a month later, start getting the symptoms of long COVID. And that's what is so unpredictable. Fox: And these symptoms can be really debilitating, right? You don't just feel a little sick. Some of these people are very fatigued, can't think straight, can't exercise at all. What are some of the other symptoms? Topol: Well, I have not only colleagues but patients who I'm following. It's just remarkable how bad this can be. Some are young, in their 30s. They were athletes, and now they can barely walk a block or two. They're just so profoundly tired. They have symptoms such as chest pain, joint aches or severe headaches, and as you mentioned earlier, brain fog. There are about 50 different symptoms that are part of the mosaic. It seems to separate into two different major categories; one, which is the immune system with the symptoms that were just mentioned. The other is the peripheral nervous system inflammation — the dysautonomia. They stand up and all of a sudden, their heart rate takes off to 100, 120, or more. They get lightheaded, and that's holding them back. That seems to be more of the peripheral nervous system, whereas the more generalized inflammation is perhaps more common. But no matter which way you go, it can be highly compromising to daily activities, no less to work. People I know who got infected in March or April of 2020 are still suffering 2-2.5 years later. They may have had some improvement, but they're still suffering. It's a very serious matter. And we're not making the progress that we need to try to come up with remedies. We don't even have a biomarker to be able to assess improvement through objective data and tracking. So we're still way behind. Fox: This sounds like a very serious condition that people should be thinking about. But so many people seem to be willing to give up, in general, on the threat of COVID, even the threat of acute COVID. Why is that? Is this a messaging failure? And if so, whose failure is it? Topol: Well, I don't know. One thing is that the rate has gone down with the Omicron variant. Whereas it was clearly in double digits (12%-15%) earlier, it appears to be more in the 6%-7% range now. So the frequency of knowing people — family members and friends — who are affected is lower recently compared with the past year. That may be one of the reasons why the awareness is not as high, but it could also be because a lot more people are vaccinated and staying protected with boosters. That does help. Vaccines and boosters may not only reduce the incidence of long COVID but they may reduce its severity or hasten recovery. It may be that it's less of a threat than it was earlier in the pandemic, but it's still a major threat. If you take 6% — or whatever it is — of people with the current variants, it's still a lot of people that are getting hit with long COVID. But otherwise, we have not done nearly as well as we should with the awareness. We know, of course, many places around the country have set up multispecialty long COVID clinics. But they can't possibly serve the huge burden of people who are suffering now. Some will improve. Some will recover fully, of course. A big .