It's a well-known fact that viruses can cause long-term sequelae for some peopleincluding flu, and COVID19 appears to have mortality and morbidity stats that are several times worse than seasonal influenza. So it's inevitable that we are going to see plenty of people with "long COVID"-health issues that persist after recovering from COVID19.
And yet.
There are several people on my SM who are talking about the long-term health repercussions they believe they are suffering as a result of COVID19. Three of them are.... how can I put this without seeming "mean"? They have considerable form for diagnosing themselves with pretty much everything. They have all kinds of can't-eat foods based on allergies and intolerance, but it's often not too clear what their symptoms are and sometimes the allergy/food intolerance disappears for a bit when there's something they really want to eat. One has diagnosed herself with celiac disease and now only eats self-prepared food which she carries around with her in tupperware boxes. I said to her, if you believe you have CD it is very important to go to a doctor and get a formal diagnosis, but she resisted on the grounds that "doctors often fail to spot these things, I don't want to waste my time." All the above people seem to have the most terrible luck with doctors, who are continually failing to diagnose them with various complaints that they insist they absolutely do have. They all have a very "narrative" style of thinking, where everything was caused by something else. If their child has a behavioral issue or a stutter or what have you, they always insist it all started after that vaccine or that ear infection etc.
When I've met people like this, I start off my feeling concerned and sympathetic. And then after a while I get a bit cynical about people who always have something wrong with them that the doctors invariably "aren't taking seriously" etc. And now, needless to say, the long COVID redux is starting among the three people in question, with said people insisting that all kinds of symptoms that they now believe they have, have been caused by their infection. Two of the three people were never diagnosed formally with COVID19 and have not had any serious illness, but "asymptomatic infections are also causing long-term damage, you know!"
And it's all so tricky. Because I don't doubt that long-term damage caused by COVID19 can be real and I don't think it's just been made up. But how are we going to sort out who is a genuine case, who is faking it, who is just suffering generalized anxiety about their health and so on? Particularly since the disease is often asymptomatic and antibody tests do not appear to be a reliable guide as to who has actually had the disease and who has not. And since some of the symptoms being suggested as being part of "long COVID" (anxiety, sleep disorders) are things which could equally be caused by the social upheaval resulting from the pandemic and the response to it.
I do think that this one is going to run and run-ie, in years to come, we will be seeing claims linking COID19 to all kinds of things that people will suffer in their lifetimesfrom ASD in children to heart attacks--and it's going to be really really hard to sort out what is going on and to what extent COVID19 is really responsible for any of this. It could become another source of friction and resentment in our society.
Just pondering, and wondering what is going to happen with this, going forward.