Lisa Sieverts

COVID-19 Long-Haulers Are Fighting for Their Future - The Atlantic

They and other long-haulers want studies that treat long COVID holistically, rather than focusing on the single organ a researcher happens to specialize in. They want more attention to common symptoms, including neurological ones (which are among the scariest) and menstrual changes (which are among the most overlooked). And they want researchers to ask them what they already know.

I’ve been worrying about this:

The data from vaccinated Israeli medical staff shows that while breakthrough infections aren’t life-threatening, they are also not benign: 19 percent of cases led to so-called “long-haul COVID-19”

Everyone Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot

But I can’t find evidence for this statistic

www.washingtonpost.com

“It has been estimated that 10 percent of children who contract covid will have chronic symptoms such as heart conditions, decreased lung function and behavioral abnormalities. “

10 arguments to consider before calling long covid psychosomatic. | by Jan Choutka | Aug, 2021 | Medium

We are in a situation where a large number of people worldwide are presenting with an illness that currently cannot be objectively explained. It seems that medicine was caught unprepared and that it doesn’t know what to do and what to think.

Interesting community science project

Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact - EClinicalMedicine

Brain imaging before and after COVID-19 in UK Biobank | medRxiv

We identified significant effects of COVID-19 in the brain with a loss of grey matter in the left parahippocampal gyrus, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the left insula.

I rested my way to recovery from long Covid. I urge others to do the same | Fiona Lowenstein | The Guardian

The effectiveness of rest and pacing make obvious the need for greater workplace protections and an expansion of disability benefits for people with long Covid

People who survived Covid-19 are 59% more likely to die within the following six months than people who were never infected

Long Covid May Help Us Understand Diseases Like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Bloomberg

Scientists begin to unravel the mysteries of the coronavirus and brains

www.washingtonpost.com

My brother:

As I taught myself more about ME/CFS, I noticed that two phrases often appeared in close proximity to the term: “It is not fully understood” and “There are no approved treatments.”

A Science Insider Gets an Inside View of Nath’s Long COVID Study - Health Rising

By contrast, if the body is exposed to the coronavirus after vaccination, the immune system is now primed to generate “a very organized response to the virus,” making long COVID unlikely

Experts say most vaccinated against COVID-19 don’t need masks - Los Angeles Times

After Months Of A Racing Heart And Burning Feet, A COVID Long-Hauler Gets A Diagnosis | New Hampshire Public Radio

POTS is a type of dysautonomia, which stems from dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system. That’s the part of the nervous system that works automatically to regulate body functions such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and digestion.

Good video from a medical expert about living with Long COVID. (Not me, but a family member has Long COVID)

Body Politic x Dr. Nancy Klimas “Long COVID & post-viral ME/CFS: Modeling Complex Illnesses” - YouTube

People With Severe COVID-19 Have More Long-Term Effects, Study Finds : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

Six months later, those who’d had COVID-19 were found to be at higher risk of new onset heart disease, diabetes, mental health disorders including anxiety and depression, substance use disorders, kidney disease and other problems.

We show that beyond the first 30 days of illness, people with COVID-19 exhibit higher risk of death and health resource utilization.

High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 | Nature

We know a lot about Covid-19. Experts have many more questions

STAT was curious which questions topped scientists’ lists. So, we asked a bunch. More than two dozen virologists, epidemiologists, immunologists, and evolutionary biologists shared with us their top question.

Covid-19 hyperinflammation and post-Covid-19 illness may be rooted in mast cell activation syndrome

Another mystery about the Covid-19 pandemic is why the infection is mildly symptomatic or even asymptomatic in the majority of those who are infected but is severely symptomatic, often life-threatening, in a sizeable minority. In other words, what causes the immune system to so catastrophically suddenly overreact in certain Covid-19 patients while remaining properly regulated in the majority?

Our study provides evidence for substantial neurological and psychiatric morbidity in the 6 months after COVID-19 infection. Risks were greatest in, but not limited to, patients who had severe COVID-19. This information could help in service planning and identification of research priorities.

6-month neurological and psychiatric outcomes in 236 379 survivors of COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study using electronic health records - The Lancet Psychiatry

Long-haul COVID: Physicians review what’s known – ScienceDaily

“But really, any of these issues can happen to any patient who had COVID-19,” says Wan. “For example, we’ve seen young patients without prior medical illness who developed autonomic dysfunction and fast heart rates after COVID-19. It’s not just the most vulnerable who have issues after COVID.”

His goal: learning all he can about how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, affects brain tissue, potentially leading to long-term symptoms of the virus.

What brains could teach scientists about the lasting effects of Covid-19

Long Covid Questions but few answers

What we know and don’t know about long Covid - STAT

Is there a viral reservoir? Is virus hiding in some of the organs? Maybe there is no virus, but some components of the virus, like proteins or RNA or genetic material of the virus, are lurking, and it’s causing a low-level activation of the immune system

More about COVID and the brain. www.washingtonpost.com

“Given that more than one hundred million people worldwide have been infected by the novel coronavirus, how the disease affects the brain might be the neurologic research question of our time.”

More scary reasons to be careful

How COVID-19 Attacks The Brain And May Cause Lasting Damage | New Hampshire Public Radio nhpr.org

Read: www.nhpr.org

Note this is a pre-print article: Neuropathology and Virus in Brain of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Non-Human Primates | Research Square

Here, we show for the first time, microhemorrhages and neuropathology that is consistent with hypoxic injury in SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates (NHPs). Importantly, this was seen among infected animals that did not develop severe respiratory disease.

Wondering if POTS is the name of what my post-COVID brother is suffering from

postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, was coined in 1993 by Dr. Phillip Low and his team at the Mayo Clinic, though it went by other names throughout history. POTS precludes standing for more than a few minutes at a time, because autonomic damage prevents blood vessels in the lower extremities from properly returning blood to the heart and brain against gravity. Heart rate can double or triple on standing, and lack of oxygen to the brain and upper body lead to many of the symptoms seen in POTS patients: dizziness, headaches, shortness of breath, chest pain, “brain fog.”

If a POTS patient does stay vertical for a prolonged period, he or she can be left with massive fatigue, light and sound sensitivity, tingling extremities, temperature intolerance and gastrointestinal problems (again, all the bodily functions of the autonomic nervous system gone awry).

When the Doctor Is a Covid ‘Long Hauler’ - The New York Times