3 ms·

I’m not a zero COVID person and just got on to living my life as normal after the acute pandemic, but about a year in I started developing autoimmune symptoms I

I’m not a zero COVID person and just got on to living my life as normal after the acute pandemic, but about a year in I started developing autoimmune symptoms I’m still struggling to figure out. There’s a chance I was always going to develop it, but I definitely wonder about long term COVID dysfunction. First I had muscle spasms and twitches, then intermittent joint pain, trouble sleeping, hives on occasion while running, now exocrine pancreatic insufficiency that seems like it’s idiopathic (MRI is confirming today). I’m scared as hell and any attempt at diagnosis or treatment is a dead end or makes things worse.

downrightmike 3y ago
We have barely any idea what happens long term. Chicken pox becomes shingles later in life. One infection of covid can disable you, and it happens more often than people think. Basically for every dead person, there is now a disabled one. 2021: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-resulted-in-1-2-million-more-disabled-people-by-the-end-of-2021-workplaces-and-policy-will-need-to-adapt/ https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-res... NHS study from 2022: "Results Of 206 299 participants (mean age 45 years, 54% female, 92% white), 15% were ever labour market inactive and 10% were ever long-term absent during follow-up. Compared with pre-infection, inactivity was higher in participants reporting Long Covid 30 to <40 weeks [adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.45; 95% CI: 1.17–1.81] or 40 to <52 weeks (aOR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.05–1.72) post-infection. Combining with official statistics on Long Covid prevalence, and assuming a correct statistical model, our estimates translate to 27 000 (95% CI: 6000–47 000) working-age adults in the UK being inactive because of Long Covid in July 2022." https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckae034/7616634?rss=1 https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article/doi/10.1093/...
- RoyTyrell 3y ago
  Exactly, it's a nasty virus. * I know someone that contracted Covid late fall of 2020 and is still disabled from Long Covid/PASC with daily fevers and fatigue. If they don't get a good night's sleep and eat enough, they're wiped out for 1-2 days afterward. * Have another friend that is still dealing with smell and taste changes a bit over a year out. Luckily the "rotting garlic" smell and most everything tasting "bitter" (their words) has significantly improved. Now most things have a little bit of normal smell and some taste has returned. * Another friend's step dad, in his mid 60s, had a heart attack and died a couple months after a week long hospital stay due to Covid. Hard to say exactly if Covid damaged something that lead to it, but his doctor thinks it's probably likely but can't prove it. He was maybe 25-30lbs overweight, which of course does raise the chances of bad outcomes from Covid, but no other chronic conditions like diabetes or COPD. He walked a few miles nearly every day before getting sick.
- CatWChainsaw 3y ago
  I once saw someone point out that AIDS is "Long HIV" and Multiple Sclerosis is "Long Guillain-Barre Syndrome", so in 20 years we'll have a new name for Long COVID and people will memory-hole being dismissive of symptoms.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    Is that accurate though? Do most people who get HIV never develop AIDS, without needing any drugs to keep it at bay? It's a nice analogy if it works, but if not then it's more misleading than anything.
    - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
      Not everyone who has GBS develops MS and not everyone who gets COVID develops Long COVID so far as we know; HIV/AIDS is the odd one out of these analogies. I don't know to what exactness the comparisons in terms of percentages of people who develop the chronic syndromes, time to onset, severity of symptoms etc, would need to be in order for an analogy to have any utility to you, so I suppose we'll see in 20 years.

downrightmike 3y ago

We have barely any idea what happens long term. Chicken pox becomes shingles later in life. One infection of covid can disable you, and it happens more often than people think. Basically for every dead person, there is now a disabled one. 2021: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-resulted-in-1-2-million-more-disabled-people-by-the-end-of-2021-workplaces-and-policy-will-need-to-adapt/ https://www.americanprogress.org/article/covid-19-likely-res... NHS study from 2022: "Results Of 206 299 participants (mean age 45 years, 54% female, 92% white), 15% were ever labour market inactive and 10% were ever long-term absent during follow-up. Compared with pre-infection, inactivity was higher in participants reporting Long Covid 30 to <40 weeks [adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.45; 95% CI: 1.17–1.81] or 40 to <52 weeks (aOR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.05–1.72) post-infection. Combining with official statistics on Long Covid prevalence, and assuming a correct statistical model, our estimates translate to 27 000 (95% CI: 6000–47 000) working-age adults in the UK being inactive because of Long Covid in July 2022." https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckae034/7616634?rss=1 https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/advance-article/doi/10.1093/...

RoyTyrell 3y ago
Exactly, it's a nasty virus. * I know someone that contracted Covid late fall of 2020 and is still disabled from Long Covid/PASC with daily fevers and fatigue. If they don't get a good night's sleep and eat enough, they're wiped out for 1-2 days afterward. * Have another friend that is still dealing with smell and taste changes a bit over a year out. Luckily the "rotting garlic" smell and most everything tasting "bitter" (their words) has significantly improved. Now most things have a little bit of normal smell and some taste has returned. * Another friend's step dad, in his mid 60s, had a heart attack and died a couple months after a week long hospital stay due to Covid. Hard to say exactly if Covid damaged something that lead to it, but his doctor thinks it's probably likely but can't prove it. He was maybe 25-30lbs overweight, which of course does raise the chances of bad outcomes from Covid, but no other chronic conditions like diabetes or COPD. He walked a few miles nearly every day before getting sick.
CatWChainsaw 3y ago
I once saw someone point out that AIDS is "Long HIV" and Multiple Sclerosis is "Long Guillain-Barre Syndrome", so in 20 years we'll have a new name for Long COVID and people will memory-hole being dismissive of symptoms.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Is that accurate though? Do most people who get HIV never develop AIDS, without needing any drugs to keep it at bay? It's a nice analogy if it works, but if not then it's more misleading than anything.
  - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
    Not everyone who has GBS develops MS and not everyone who gets COVID develops Long COVID so far as we know; HIV/AIDS is the odd one out of these analogies. I don't know to what exactness the comparisons in terms of percentages of people who develop the chronic syndromes, time to onset, severity of symptoms etc, would need to be in order for an analogy to have any utility to you, so I suppose we'll see in 20 years.