Covid Advice #15 (07/11/2021):
Long Covid -- Even Mild or Silent Asymptomatic Covid is Bad
Long Covid -- Even Mild or Silent Asymptomatic Covid is Bad
- from Dr. Dennis Fong -
I want to re-emphasize my advice to wear masks, social distance, and practice Covid prevention measures, even if you have been fully vaccinated. Covid is on the upswing again, and from an average of about 12,000 new cases a day the end of June, the US is now experiencing an average of about 24,000 new cases a day since the July 4 long weekend. Like I said before, even mild Covid and asymptomatic or silent Covid (infected but never feel it) is bad because you might get long haul symptoms, and even the fully vaccinated can get infected, though it's about ten times less often than the unvaccinated.
Long Covid is, according to the CDC, a range of symptoms that lasts weeks or months that can happen to anyone who has had Covid-19. Fatigue, shortness of breath, difficulty think or concentrating ("brain fog"), heart pounding, headaches, dizziness on standing, mood changes, sleep problems, coughing, chest pain, etc. (see CDC - long term effects) Long Covid symptoms are often worsened by mental or physical activity. No one knows how long these symptoms will last.
The highly respected New England Journal of Medicine came out on July 1 with an article entitled, "Confronting Our Next National Health Disaster -- Long-Haul Covid". The article thinks that 10% to 30% of people who ever get infected, including the mild and silent cases, will get long Covid. Even the younger people will get long Covid: the average age is 40. The article estimates that, conservatively, about 15 million people will get long Covid; that's about 1 in 20 Americans. Again, we don't know how long long Covid lasts, and we don't know how to tell who will recover when.
So even if you have been vaccinated, wear your mask, social distance, and practice preventive measures. You might want to see my 05/26/2021 post for more reasons even mild and silent Covid is bad. If you want to see all my suggestions for preventive measures, you can look at my previous Covid posts on this website since April 2020. If you haven't been vaccinated, then for sure wear your mask, social distance, practice preventive measures, and get vaccinated as soon as possible. There's no reason for hesitating about getting vaccinated: more than a third of US adults have been vaccinated, so even though the approval was done quickly, we now have far more people vaccinated for Covid than in any pre-approval study for any other vaccine, and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have proved to be very safe.
Wish you happiness! Stay healthy and stay safe!
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