“Don’t think it’s not going to happen to you. Stay safe!”
World and national events have redirected our attentions to other threats recently. COVID does not care. It is still with us. A celebrity reminded me in a tweet that popped up first thing:
Breakthrough infections by COVID variants may not as readily result in death for the vaccinated and boosted, but can still produce lingering effects. “Long COVID” symptoms that can last weeks to months beyond initial infection is especially pernicious. Nature reports that long COVID risk falls only slightly after vaccination. There is no diagnostic test for it nor a standard definition of the mysterious ailment (Seattle Times):
Nearly 18 months after getting COVID-19 and spending weeks in the hospital, Terry Bell struggles with hanging up his shirts and pants after doing the laundry.
Lifting his clothes, raising his arms, arranging items in his closet leave Bell short of breath and often trigger severe fatigue. He walks with a cane, only short distances. He’s 50 pounds lighter than when the virus struck.
Bell, 70, is among millions of older adults who have grappled with long COVID — a population that has received little attention even though research suggests older adults are more likely to develop the poorly understood condition than younger or middle-aged adults.
Driving the news: A Department of Veterans Affairs study of almost 34,000 vaccinated people who had breakthrough infections in 2021 found the shots only cut the likelihood of long COVID by about 15%.
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- Researchers examining patients for up to six months after testing positive didn’t find a difference in the severity or range of symptoms between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
- The risk of long COVID is higher in people with breakthrough infections than in people with seasonal influenza.
- The study in Nature Medicine is believed to be the most comprehensive effort to get at how likely people with breakthrough infections will develop long COVID and comes after the U.S. logged 83.8 million cases.
- The research didn’t cover the Omicron wave, and experts say it’s still unclear if the high contagious variant is as likely to cause long COVID as earlier strains.
What they’re saying: “We’re literally solely reliant, now almost exclusively, on the vaccine to protect us and to protect the public,” lead author Ziyad Al-Aly of the VA St. Louis Health Care System told Nature. “Now we’re saying it’s only going to protect you 15%. You remain vulnerable, and extraordinarily so.”
CBS: “Long COVID” or “post-COVID” symptoms affect 1 in 4 seniors who survived infection, study finds
As many as one in four seniors and one in five adults under 65 experienced “long COVID” or “post-COVID” symptoms after surviving a coronavirus infection, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.
The study — published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report — is the latest to try and quantify how many of the millions of Americans who have now tested positive for the virus are facing long-term issues caused by their infection.
NBC: Brain fog, other long Covid symptoms can last more than a year, study finds
Most neurological symptoms persisted after an average of 15 months, the study found. While most patients did report improvements in their cognitive function and fatigue, the symptoms had not gone away completely and still affected their quality of life.
“A lot of those patients still have difficulties with their cognition that prevent them from working like they used to,” said a study co-leader, Dr. Igor Koralnik, the chief of neuro-infectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, who oversees the Neuro COVID-19 Clinic.
The study also found that some symptoms, including heart rate and blood pressure variation, as well as gastrointestinal problems, increased over time, while loss of taste and smell tended to improve. Covid vaccination did not alleviate symptoms, but it also did not make long Covid any worse.
Don’t know about you, but I’m rather attached to my cognitive function. Not really keen on having it impaired. Except for fun.
Stay safe out there.
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