COVID-19 is admittedly a pandemic and has caused much economic and social disruption in the world. Now we learn that it may not be over after a few of weeks of illness. LONG COVID is now an accepted syndrome.

You can tell because of the many clinics for handling it being set up by the NHS in England, and millions in research money being directed towards a solution.

The most disturbing thing to me is that infected but asymptomatic or mildly ill people may get this condition, and have one or more symptoms for a long time .Certainly, those more seriously ill develop long Covid symptoms more commonly.

Long Covid is taking its place with chronic fatigue syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder and post ICU syndrome as poorly understood conditions. They may in fact be taking place simultaneously, even if they are not identical.

The cause  can  be due to continuing viral infection in older or immune compromised individuals. Vascular damage is another reason that could account for the widespread involvement of practically any organ system that doesn’t go away after a few weeks.

Structural damage to the alveoli of the lungs and other organs can also play a role, which would account for shortness of breath as a prominent persistent symptom. Although it has not been highlighted in the articles that I have read, auto immunity can also be playing a role in long Covid.

This would go along with The myocarditis rarely caused by the mRNA vaccines; perhaps some of the protein sequences of the spike proteins have similar shapes to some human tissues. Name a symptom, and you’ll probably find it listed among the 50 odd symptoms mentioned in the Wikipedia article on long Covid, which is appended to the end of this article.

The most prominent symptoms include extreme fatigue, mental fog, and shortness of breath. Treatment is mainly supportive and general. After ruminating on this condition, it’s going to be quite a while before Yours truly wants to breathe in other peoples air spaces; I plan to continue masking in public, distancing and avoiding large groups.

That being said, I am planning to go out to eat dinner tonight, and can hopefully be placed at the edge of the room. I will inquire as to the vaccination status of our waiter. The people at my table will all be doubly vaccinated, which is not complete assurance of safety, but will help make me feel relatively comfortable.

I also plan on getting a booster shot as soon as it is available. Hopefully, the vaccine incorporating the special mutations of the delta virus will be soon available. You don’t want to be infected by this nasty, promethian shape-shifter. Take care.

–Dr. C

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