The COVID pandemic meanders on with many people still becoming infected, hospitalized and even dying. And despite all of its shortcomings and dangers COVID vaccines are still pushed by the medical and public health establishments and government agencies as the solution. New variants of the virus keep emerging, making vaccines increasingly ineffective. But meanwhile the new global pandemic becomes more and more prevalent with hardly any help for victims from the medical world. What is the new pandemic? The long COVID pandemic.
It may not be killing people, just destroying their lives.
Long COVID hits many millions of people who were infected, regardless of whether they were asymptomatic, very ill, young or old, and got COVID vaccines. Victims usually have a large number of debilitating symptoms affecting their behavior, organs and cognitive capabilities. All the medical world is doing is sending victims to many specialists who only try to address their symptoms. But there are no cures. In many ways the new pandemic is worse than the original one. Because victims have little reason to be hopeful of regaining their normal lives. They may suffer for years.
Also to be noted are some findings that COVID vaccines themselves may cause long COVID. This article is worth serious attention: "In rare cases, coronavirus vaccines may cause Long Covid-like symptoms." Limited evidence may not be compelling but also cannot be ignored.
A related issue is whether COVID vaccines reduce the probability of getting long COVID. This article targets this question: "Long COVID risk falls only slightly after vaccination, huge study shows." It noted; "Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 lowers the risk of long COVID after infection by only about 15%, according to a study of more than 13 million people 1. That's the largest cohort that has yet been used to examine how much vaccines protect against the condition, but it is unlikely to end the uncertainty."
This is good article on the long term significance of long COVID: "Vaccines are no match for long Covid. Treating it is science's next great challenge. -Failure to recognize the need for a response could be a blunder we rue for decades to come." "Whatever your standpoint on whether the pandemic is over, or what "living with the virus" should mean, it is clear some manifestation of Covid-19 will be with us for some time to come. Not least for the estimated 1.7 million people in the UK living with long Covid."
"And lest any who made a full and rapid recovery from infection still wonder whether long Covid might be a self-reported creation of the indolent, this is a now a large, well-documented, convergent cluster of clear physiological symptoms, and it is common to every part of the globe affected by Covid-19. Many sufferers of my acquaintance were keen cyclists, runners, skiers and dancers, but are now disabled and deprived of their former passions, while some are unable to resume their former professions. Doctors and scientists the world over now consider this a recognized part of the Sars-CoV-2 symptom profile."
Here are some important findings from several recent articles.
Lingering Brain Problems Common After COVID - " Can new initiative point to long COVID therapies?
From MedPage Today June 29, 2022
At least one neuropsychiatric symptom has been reported in up to 90% of patients 6 months after COVID-19 hospitalization and in about 25% of non-hospitalized adults with COVID-19, a targeted rapid literature review showed.
Sequelae rates differed depending on the spectrum of post-COVID complications evaluated, the severity, course, and time window from initial infection, and the methodology used to assess symptoms, reported Naomi Simon, MD, MSc, and Jennifer Frontera, MD, both of New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.
Commonly reported neuropsychiatric events that occurred 4 or more weeks after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection were cognitive impairment, sleep problems, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fatigue, and headache, Simon and Frontera wrote in a special communication in JAMA Psychiatry.
Diverse reports about symptoms and prevalence rates have made it hard to pinpoint COVID's persistent sequelae, Simon and Frontera noted.
"The current literature describing neuropsychological events following SARS-CoV-2 infection is limited by ascertainment biases, variable definitions of long COVID, conflation of neurological symptoms, signs, and diagnoses, and lack of adequate control populations," Frontera told MedPage Today.
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