What little we know is not good...
...Long Covid "is a phenomenon that is really quite real and quite extensive," Anthony Fauci said earlier this month.
When Heather-Elizabeth Brown spiked a fever in April in Detroit, the only reason she was able to get a coronavirus test was because she was volunteering as a police chaplain and was therefore considered an essential worker. Her results came back negative, and she was relieved. But then, she says, "I just got sicker and sicker."
After being turned away from overcrowded ERs twice, Brown was eventually admitted on her third try. She finally tested positive, and by that point, she was severely ill. She was put on a ventilator and spent the next 31 days in a medically induced coma.
Before Covid-19, Brown was a healthy, active Black woman in her 30s. "But when I came off the ventilator, they had to coach me how to breathe." The smallest pleasures " like eating a sliver of ice after her feeding tube was removed " became something to treasure.
Six months later, Brown is still very ill. She has been hospitalized for blood clots and has lingering heart problems, nerve pain, and extreme fatigue. "Even making breakfast is now out of the question," she says. Most troublingly, she's still experiencing severe brain fog, which makes it hard for her to return to work.
Brown is just one of many previously healthy people whose life has been derailed after a Covid-19 infection. While early research on Covid-19 focused on its respiratory symptoms, we now know its impacts " both direct and indirect " can be much more extensive and relentless. ...
