COVID-19 Reinfections Can Increase the Risk of Organ-Failing Long COVID and Other Severe Respiratory Diseases

...The study shows that the more reinfection cycles a patient endures, the more the disease alters our immune system. Over time, it obliterates the T-cells responsible for helping our body remember how to fight the virus. The virus seems to thrive on repetition, exploiting our weakened defences with each encounter and increasing the risk of long-term organ system damage. This is true even for low-risk groups such as the vaccinated, younger people or children...

https://weather.com/en-IN/india/coronavirus/news/2023-12-28-covid-reinfections-increases-long-covid-risk

Children – even healthy teens and the very young – can have long Covid, several studies have found, and it can follow an infection that’s severe or mild.

Children – even healthy teens and the very young – can have long Covid, several studies have found, and it can follow an infection that’s severe or mild. https://t.co/X22qGCxPVr

— CNN (@CNN) January 16, 2023

Every time someone says we are in a “different place” in the pandemic and “have the tools” to operate schools safely and without disruption… ask them how many local schools have classrooms with 6+ air exchanges per hour; had their HVAC systems upgraded?

Every time someone says we are in a “different place” in the pandemic and “have the tools” to operate schools safely and without disruption… ask them how many local schools have classrooms with 6+ air exchanges per hour; had their HVAC systems upgraded? pic.twitter.com/8jetIcAsJn

— Patrick Hickey, MD (@pwhickey) August 16, 2022

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1559617693929467904.html

1 in 5 Educators Say They’ve Experienced Long COVID

Two years into the pandemic, many Americans are eager to leave COVID behind. But that won’t be so easy for as many as 1 in 5 educators who, according to a recent EdWeek survey, have experienced the emerging, mysterious illness known as long COVID.

Epidemiologists estimate that 20 to 30 percent, or even as much as 50 percent, of people infected with COVID-19 end up developing long COVID, which encompasses a wide variety of disorders people experience weeks, months, or even years after their initial brush with the disease.

Some people lose their taste and smell; others have developed crushing fatigue, memory lapses, heart and lung conditions, vision loss, anxiety and depression, and other ailments that impede nearly every aspect of their daily life...

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/1-in-5-educators-say-theyve-experienced-long-covid/2022/04

@Poppendieck @MCPS has reported over 10,000 students and staff infected in the last 14 days. That means at least 50 of them will likely develop long COVID. Death is not the only metric of concern.

@MCPS has reported over 10,000 students and staff infected in the last 14 days. That means at least 50 of them will likely develop long COVID. Death is not the only metric of concern. https://t.co/XsK0cmcTxL

— Dustin Poppendieck (@Poppendieck) January 7, 2022

As more kids go down the ‘deep, dark tunnel’ of long Covid, doctors still can’t predict who is at risk

 

At 14 years old, Kate Dardis knows what pain feels like and how to work through it. An accomplished gymnast accustomed to training four hours a day, she has met a competitor this year that she can’t beat with exercise or sheer willpower — yet.

Rarely sick before a stomachache kept her home from school for three days in October, the Bloomington, Ill., eighth-grader was hit by a headache in January that still hasn’t loosened its grip. Her heart races. Her body aches. She gets winded climbing stairs and feels dizzy when she changes position. Concentrating on schoolwork is difficult remotely and exhausting in person. 

Kate learned last month from a team of doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital that she is suffering from the post-Covid syndrome better known as long Covid. Her Covid-19 test was negative last fall after some teammates and coaches at her gym tested positive, but in February an antibody test ordered by her pediatrician confirmed she had been infected with Covid-19...

https://www.statnews.com/2021/06/10/as-more-kids-get-long-covid-doctors-still-cant-predict-who-is-at-risk/

England: Strain on NHS as tens of thousands of staff suffer long Covid

Intense pressures on the already overstretched NHS are being exacerbated by the tens of thousands of health staff who are sick with long Covid, doctors and hospital bosses say.

At least 122,000 NHS personnel have the condition, the Office for National Statistics disclosed in a detailed report that showed 1.1 million people in the UK were affected by the condition. That is more than any other occupational group and ahead of teachers, of whom 114,000 have it.

Patient care is being hit because many of those struggling with long Covid are only able to work part-time, are too unwell to perform their usual duties, or often need time off because they are in pain, exhausted or have “brain fog”...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/03/nhs-feels-strain-tens-thousands-staff-long-covid