The COVID-19 Long-Haulers

I’ve spent most of my time on COVID-19 talking about how to prevent getting the infection, but I haven’t talked about what happens if you get the infection and recover from it. I hope you have a mild case, and in a week or two, you’re back in business. Your body has built up antibodies, so research shows you should be in good shape at least for a while.

However, some people are experiencing symptoms long after they’ve recovered from the initial infection. They call themselves long-haulers. The path of the disease is unpredictable; people feel better and think they’re on the mend and then get walloped by the symptoms again. The top five symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, joint pain, chest pain, and cough. For some people, the after-effects of having COVID-19 are actually worse than the initial infection. Fatigue and shortness of breath seemed to occur in over half the people who’ve had confirmed COVID-19 infections, and they last for several months.

Paula and I, and actually the entire family here at home, probably had the virus. This happened way back in January and early February, before we were really aware the virus existed. Paula had other complicating factors and still has unexplained fatigue. What can we do about it? There’s no research to guide us, but I’ll give it my best effort in Saturday’s Memo.

What are you prepared to do today?