Update: 2 New Studies on Long Covid

It was only yesterday that I was echoing Mark Twain (or whoever said it about the weather) when I suggested, everybody talks about Long Covid but nobody does anything about it.
Well, at least I just found another current study, this one from the CDC,. 
My main takeaway from this one is that nearly twice as many women as men have Long  Covid.
Thsi echoes a mini study done in our household, when the female has more symptoms than the male.  (see CDC link directly below:)

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/18-million-us-adults-long-covid-cdc/story?id=103464362

And then there's this: 

Long COVID patients have clear differences in immune and hormone function from patients without the condition, according to a new study led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Yale School of Medicine.
The research, published in the September 25 issue of Nature, is the first to show specific blood biomarkers that can accurately identify patients with long COVID.

www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2023/people-with-long-covid-have-distinct-hormonal-and-immune-differences-from-those-without-this-condition

• This just popped up today, Sept. 25. I caught a snippet on MSNBC and tracked it down on the Web. But I was already made aware of the study by my long-time friend, Alan Levine (since junior high school!) See his note below. Thanks, Alan.
  
• (This is from yesterday:) 

The sudden fumbling for names and memories that were there yesterday – often catalogued (including by the afflicted) as “losing it.”
Sometimes it’s called Brain Fog. Comes and goes, like coastal fogs, but more dangerous.

That ache in one limb or another that cuts down on activity and mobility, leading to expensive and grueling trips to medical centers that do not lead to any result except they found nothing.

Recently, The New York Times ran, in the invaluable Health Section, an essay by Paula Span called “Long Covid Poses Special Challenges for Seniors.” It proposes that Long Covid is real and formidable and must be acknowledged before we can adapt to it.

Span writes about a librarian in Michigan who was walking all over Ann Arbor, often four miles a day, until she got whacked in March of 2020, before most people had been warned by any responsible agency or government.
“The virus caused extreme chills, shortness of breath, a nervous system disorder and such cognitive decline that, for months, Ms. Anderson was unable to read a book.”

Still, people search for information beyond the glib explanations on the tube and the dismissals by people who think the pandemic is over, or harmless, or never existed. (I hear that even in a generally enlightened corner of the world.)

On Sunday, I saw Dr. Anthony Fauci on TV on Sunday. Can’t remember what channel or what host. (Brain Fog, indeed.) But his words were  current, and my general memory of the interview was that “they” or “we” still do not know much -- and Brain Fog generally may be an explanation for….whatever.

On Monday morning, I poked around online to see what is available.  
First, since the government has apparently decided Covid is serious again, I signed up for four free test kits, via: https://www.covid.gov/tests
Next, I found an article from the New York Times from only two days ago, warning that a cold virus could set the stage for Long Covid.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/cold-virus-may-set-stage-long-covid
Then I found an article that says women have a 50 per cent higher chance of developing Long Covid than men
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/health/long-covid-risk-factors.html
​
My general impression is that the major health institutions are just beginning to acknowledge/study Long Covid. Stay tuned, if you can still focus.
However, the Web does include examples of people and regions that were taking Covid – and it’s long-form product – seriously.

For example, I found a site from the UK that included a graphic about Long Covid for adults and children. (It’s from 2021 but it seems relevant -- more than ever.) It disclosed contacts for support groups in regional areas in England and Wales.
Print it out. It is ideal for the refrigerator door and could also be stored in a cellphone for display when people start proposing indoor activities.

Recently I met some of my longest friends – outdoors, in a park all of us know.  It was wonderful – and made me realize all over again the fellowship I have missed in the past 3 ½ years. (Two of 20 came down with Covid within days and are doing okay.)
 
Last fall (don’t tell anybody) I went to a memorial for two of my Spencer cousins, in deepest New Jersey. I absolutely had to be there, and am deeply happy that I saw other cousins, caught up on decades of life. I credit my safety to God’s grace.

Some people seem to be going everywhere, doing everything. They know the stuff is all around us, but they go. Occasionally, we take a huge psychic breath and see a good friend or relative indoors, but generally, even for family reunions I recite my internal recorded announcement – that this stuff keeps morphing, and we just can’t take many more chances.

Meantime, with deep sorrow, I am ducking a large gathering of good friends and colleagues in a crowded pub because I just can’t afford the flying molecules while laughing, crying and hugging.
​
We two elders are hunkering.  We’ve had two, maybe three, cases of Covid. The one at the end of 2022 was brutal, followed by a very wet and sloppy case of RSV, I think. Happy new year, indeed.
When we go to our very good doctors, we talk of our trying symptoms of Long Covid. The doctors acknowledge it, and they take care of us, and we try to wait out Long Covid, whatever it is. 
                        ***
​Nice visual of Long Covid from the UK. 2 years old and counting.