Long Covid after having very mild Covid?

[tenlittlecygnets]

My h thinks he had Covid a year ago. No tests so don't know. He had a cough for a few days, sore throat, headache.

He's been feeling more tired than usual since, on and off, and has been having headaches and dizziness.

Is it likely to be long Covid after having it so mildly?? And are the symptoms of long Covid there all the time, or can they come and go?

Is there any chance it's actual covid? As in has he had a test now?

Hi OP

In short, yes it could be (but he should see his GP and exclude other possibilities too). Symptoms that come and go are very typical of long COVID.

I and all of my friends have struggled with tiredness, aches and pains, disturbed sleep and a whole bunch of stuff , on and off, since this began. I don't think any of us had COVID (There is not a lot of it in Japan). I think we are suffering from pandemic-itis--stresses and strains caused by worry, less daylight and exercise, not getting help from grandparents with domestic stuff, and so on and so forth.

Long COVID is absolutely a real phenomenon and deserves careful investigation. But I am not sure it is helpful to start classifying every symptom people have as long COVID without good reason, and I think this is contributing to general moral panic.

One of my favorite studies (and favorite study titles!) of all time: "How Common Are Symptoms?" bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/6/e005374

"The median number of symptoms reported by participants in the previous week was 5 with only 10.6% of participants reporting no symptoms. The five most common symptoms in the previous 7 days were: back pain (38%), fatigue (36%), headache (35%), runny or stuffy nose (34%) and joint pain (34%). "

Twist: This was a completely random sample of people taken in 2014 before COVID even existed. The point being that at any given time, a really high percentage of people suffer annoying issues like backache or a runny nose. Most of the long COVID studies I have seen don't seem to be making any attempt to do basic stuff like comparing pools of "COVID" cases against "control" groups.

I don't think I've had Covid. In fact, when we first went into lockdown I didn't leave the house til July. However, I've felt tired and sluggish, stopped sleeping properly and developed vertigo and anaemia.

Primarily I think most of these have been caused by a lack of exercise, sunlight and lots of stress.

I do think that Long Covid is around for sure but the pandemic has caused a lot of things too.

I do agree with the exhaustion and lethargy thing - we’ve all become extremely deconditioned during all this, be it socially, physically or both! I did entered 2021 so horribly unfit after 9 months of eating my feelings & losing motivation to exercise. I got out of breath walking up the stairs 😳 (for reference, I’m a ‘healthy’ size 10 so it’s not like I carry extra weight).. I’m on month 5 of exercising 3ish times a week for an hour a time and I feel SO much better. The fog and fatigue is gone! It was tough for the first 3 weeks but I pushed through & now, I feel pretty good overall!

I don’t dismiss long covid but I do think there are two things running parallel here!

It sounds like it’s just his body reacting to a massive change in routine, exercise, sleep patterns etc. If he used to go out to work every day and was a generally active person and is now WFH, receiving less sunlight, exercising less and so on then his body is bound to react.

Not everything is “long COVID”. In the vast majority of cases it’s probably anxiety or a form of depression from living like this for over a year.

Thanks, all. He's not been wfh but has been working as normal, very long hours, lots of stress, travelling for work etc.