So the lingering symptoms reported include
- Fatigue, weakness, tiredness, no stamina
- Respiratory, shortness of breath, decreased SaO2, decreased lung capacity
- Neurological, chronic pain, mood changes- edgy, irritable; vision problems; sensitivity to smells
Not yet reported but possible we'll see them in future
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Long term lung damage
The question is
how common are these?Dr. Izbicki from Shaare Zedek says they affect about 50% of patients. How did he reach that number? We don't know, because he only publicized a preliminary press release. He's director of the Pulmonary Institute, so he might be only seeing patients with more severe symptoms. In fact, the story includes his phone number for recovered covid patients to sign up for his study, so we shouldn't expect that 50% will be his final conclusion.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/50-percent-of-covid-19-patients-suffer-from-weakness-distress-after-recovery-633072On the other hand, some here suggested it's closer to 0%, that few if any of their acquaintances have lingering symptoms.
We could get a quick look at this if DDFers ask acquaintances whether they have ANY lingering symptoms, and just post the numbers here, as
I spoke to ____ people who recovered from covid and ___ still have lingering symptoms.Here's why I think it's important:
When covid first appeared, the consequence we feared was death, and therefore we accepted isolation.
Now that young people know the chance of death is <1%, they are less careful about avoiding infection.
But it's still important for them to be careful, to avoid infecting those especially vulnerable, and to avoid the need for further shutdowns.
An emphasis on the __% chance of developing lingering and even debilitating side effects might encourage them to take more precautions to avoid infection.
This might sound silly, to expect that "not being able to work out" would be more of a deterrent than "chance of dying", but I vaguely remember something like this from an advertising campaign against smoking. Young people were shown ads that targeted different harms of smoking, and their responses were something like this:
- You'll get emphysema! What do I care? I'll be old then.
- You'll get cancer! Maybe in 30 years. So what?
- You'll get heart disease! Yeah, doesn't everyone?
- You'll get droopy, wrinkled skin! Aaaargh! I'll be ugly?! Help me quit!
So hearing "You'll be too tired to dance" might motivate more young people to try to avoid infection.