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Fauci backtracks on year-long pandemic school closures, admits they were 'mistake'
by JACKSON WALKER | The National Desk
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (TND)
Dr. Anthony Fauci backtracked his support Tuesday for a COVID-19 mitigation method which closed down schools throughout the country, calling the strategy a mistake.
Fauci helped lead the nation's initial response to COVID-19 as part of the Trump administration. In an interview with CBS Mornings this week, the former National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases (NIAID) director explained school closures were necessary at the very beginning of the pandemic.
"I think what was not a mistake was the actual closure, he said. When we had to shut down, that 15-day to flatten the curve, we were in a tsunami of cases.
He went on to say the length of time these restrictions stayed in place proved costly.
So that was a mistake in retrospect, we will not repeat it? host Tony Dokoupil asked.
Absolutely, Fauci said.
Fauci repeatedly cast doubt on the idea of reopening schools during the spring and summer months of 2020, creating a notable rift between himself and then-President Trump.
Later in 2020, Fauci said reopening schools in areas of high transmission was not a "prudent" move.
In an opening statement during a recent House subcommittee hearing, Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, condemned Faucis position as an authority on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Americans were aggressively bullied, shamed and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of COVID, Rep. Wenstrup said. And it should not have been the case that Americans were forced to comply with oppressive mandates, when those who chose to illegally cross over our southern border were not.
Follow Jackson Walker on X at @_jlwalker_ for the latest trending national news. Have a news tip? Send it to jacwalker@sbgtv.com.
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Long COVID has been recognized since 2020 and affects an estimated 17,000 people in the U.S. Yet theres no comprehensive and widely adopted definition of the condition, which hampers diagnosis and treatment.
Now, a new report released June 11 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) proposes a consensus definition of long COVID. The definition was developed by a committee of medical specialists, researchers, and patients who incorporated input from more than 1,300 participants.
Our committee hopes this single definition, crafted with input from across research and patient communities, will help to educate the public about this widespread and highly consequential disease state, Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD, chair of the reports authoring committee and president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, said in a news release.
Heres what you need to know about why experts think a universal definition is necessary, what the new definition entails, and how it could impact people with long COVID.
Jacob Wackerhausen / Getty Images
The report noted that several working definitions of long COVID exist, but no standard definition has yet been agreed upon. Furthermore, many definitions have been brief or vague to accommodate the rapid pace of ongoing research.
This ambiguity has created challenges for policymakers, researchers, and medical professionals. It has also had consequences for patients, including difficulty accessing care or feeling dismissed by medical professionals and others when symptoms dont align with the public perception of long COVID.
Recognizing these issues, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tasked the NASEM, an independent adviser to the nation on science and medicine, with creating a comprehensive definition of long COVID.
According to the NASEM report, long COVID can affect anyone and:
Beyond these criteria, the report highlighted some notable features of the condition.
It's not necessary for a person to have previously tested positive for COVID or have antibodies to receive a diagnosis, the report said. The infection that may have triggered long COVID could have been asymptomatic, mild, or severe.
Medical professionals can diagnose long COVID on clinical grounds, the definition continued; no lab test can currently confirm or deny a long COVID diagnosis.
Furthermore, long COVID can range from mild to severe and may improve after a few months or persist for years.
Long COVID can have more than 200 symptoms, the committee said. Of those, the most common are:
Someone with long COVID may have several symptoms or only one, and the condition can affect a persons ability to function daily.
In addition to individual symptoms, the report recognized that people living with long COVID may also develop one or more diagnosable conditions, such as heart disease, cognitive impairment, and fibromyalgia. If someone has a chronic condition before a SARS-CoV-2 infection, long COVID can make it worse.
The report stipulates that the definition must be revised within three years or if there are new research findings.
Doctors who treat patients with long COVID had largely positive reactions to the proposed definition.
Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, MD, chair of internal medicine at Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, who researches long COVID treatments, called the definition excellent and comprehensive and noted that [it] will lead to a timelier diagnosis of the condition. The simplicity of gradingmild, moderate, or severeis very helpful, he told Health.
Breaking the condition down into different subtypes would make the definition even more helpful, he added. Based on the organ system affected, we need specific diagnostic criteria in well-defined terms, he explained.
Eric Wisotzky, MD, medical director for the MedStar Health COVID Recovery Program, commended the NASEM definition for [including] both common and less common symptoms of Long COVID.
I like that it truly outlines many of the different scenarios in which we see long COVID, including a delay in symptom onset, waxing or waning symptoms, and symptoms after very mild COVID illness, he told Health.
Although Thomas Gut, DO, associate chair of medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, told Health that he believes the definition is [going] in the right direction, he sees its broad scope and very liberal interpretation of symptoms as problematic.
Allowing for patients that never had symptoms of primary COVID, with or without antigen testing, to potentially attribute their symptoms to long COVID does a disservice to getting any accurate diagnosis for some patients, he said.
Wisotzky, on the other hand, pointed out that its absolutely true that people who never had initial COVID symptoms or a positive test can end up with long Covid.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already updated its definition of long COVID to reflect the NASEM version, HHS has indicated that it is currently reviewing NASEMs recommendations and proposed definition.
If the NASEM definition is accepted as the standard, one next step will include developing simple scoring algorithms to help make diagnosing long COVID less of a challenge for clinicians, Sathyamoorthy said.
As for patients, having an established and accepted definition of the condition may help legitimize their experience, Lily Chu, MD, vice president of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, said during the report release webinar. One-third of Americans are still unsure about what long COVID even is, she added.
During our engagement activities, the public told us that the number one way they would use any long COVID definition would be to explain their condition to other people, she said. I believe that our inclusive definition will help both these groups.
Hopefully, she added, family members, friends, educational institutions, and employers will understand patients limitations better.
In a recent report posted on the Harvard University website, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation present findings from a national poll they conducted to obtain public views on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-related policies.
In the present study, researchers highlight the views and opinions of US adults regarding emergent epidemics based on a poll conducted between March 21 and April 2, 2024.
The researchers surveyed 1,017 individuals in English and Spanish via phone and online. Panelists were selected randomly using an address sampling (ABS) frame and random-digit (RDD) samples from SSRS surveys. Most panelists took the survey online, with a minor subgroup who did not have internet access doing it over the phone.
The researchers evaluated the efficacy of four COVID-19 pandemic-era policies: mask use, health staff immunization, eating closures, and school closings. They invited participants to consider their thoughts on these policies and identify the primary causes of their negative impact.
They investigated participant attitudes toward the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the state public health agency, and the local public health department. They asked the participants if the steps adopted by these agencies were reasonable, excessive, or insufficient. The survey also asked participants about the seriousness of COVID-19 for public health in the United States and their views on COVID-19 policies.
The researchers weighted sample data based on selection and recruitment likelihood, response rates, and demographic characteristics to address non-sampling errors that could arise from non-response bias, question phrasing, and ordering effects. They used procedures like random sampling, contact attempts, replication subsamples, and systematic respondent selection within homes for sample representativeness.
In retrospect, most Americans view four pandemic-related policies positively, with varying percentages believing each was a favorable idea: mask-wearing requirements in businesses and stores (70%), healthcare personnel vaccinations (65%), closing down of indoor dining restaurants (63%), and schools (56%).
Most Americans (79%) believe one or more of the COVID-19-related measures are favorable for public health, with 42% reporting all four were excellent ideas and 37% believing only a few were. About 20% of US adults believe all four programs were terrible ideas in retrospect.
Most subgroups, including rural residents and Republicans, believe one or more of the four COVID-19 policies were favorable for population health in retrospect. Democrats (71%) showed a higher likelihood than Republicans (18%) and Independents (44%) to believe all policies were favorable, as are Blacks (62%) and Hispanics or Latinos (55%) compared to white individuals (32%), and urban residents (55%) compared to those from suburban (39%) and rural (29%) backgrounds.
A few Americans believe that COVID-19 policies are not a good idea due to concerns regarding their long duration (84% to 87% across COVID-19 policies), political motivations (60% to 81%), economic effects (68% to 91%), and apparent lacking of personal choices (75% to 94%). The participants deemed school closures an unfavorable idea since they would negatively impact children's psychological health (91%) and learning (97%).
Americans have varying views on the severity of COVID-19's early-on threat. Only 3.0% of Americans believe it is not a primary health concern, while many believe it is a primary threat to all, including elders (14%) and those with existing medical issues (94%). Approximately 37% considered COVID-19 a primary health concern for everyone at the outset. Those who believe COVID-19 threats were prevalent early on showed an increased likelihood of supporting essential pandemic legislation.
The findings indicate significant population support for COVID-19 measures and cautionary stories about the difficulties of formulating and explaining the policies. Public healthcare officials could benefit from establishing right-sized strategies that target individuals at high risk over a specific timeframe.
Even if population health groups do not select which policies to enact, it would be beneficial to discuss the epidemiological reasoning behind them and note their societal and economic implications.
Disentangling population health guidelines from local and national politics would continue to be a primary challenge; however, efforts to comprehend public viewpoints and connect with individuals receptive to all parties would be critical to assuring that all US residents benefit from public health protections in emerging pandemics.
Journal references:
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health/de Beaumont Foundation poll, US Views on Pandemic Policies: Lessons for Emerging Outbreaks, June 2024, published online at https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/
People resistant to COVID-19 have never-seen-before immune responses and possibly high levels of HLA-DQA2. These findings come from researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University College London (UCL), Imperial College London, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and their collaborators who used data from a unique challenge study.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was administered to healthy adult volunteers as part of the worlds first COVID-19 human challenge study. That study was initiated to allow controlled investigation of pathogenesis, correlates of protection and efficacy testing of forthcoming interventions. Then, withnasopharyngeal swabs and blood samples, they used single-cell sequencing technology to create a comprehensive timeline of how the body responds to SARS-CoV-2 exposure.
Their work was published in Nature this week. The lead author is Rik G.H. Lindeboom of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and now The Netherlands Cancer Institute.
SARS-CoV-2 has infected millions across the globe with COVID-19, which is potentially fatal. But many have had contact with someone positive for COVID-19, but have managed to avoid getting ill themselves. While previous studies have examined COVID-19 patients after symptom onset, in this new study researchers set out to capture immune responses right from exposure, in an immunologically nave cohort for the first time.
As part of the U.K. COVID-19 Human Challenge study, led by Imperial College London, 36 healthy adult volunteers without previous history of COVID-19 were administered SARS-CoV-2 virus through the nose. Researchers performed detailed monitoring in the blood and lining of their noses, tracking the entire infection as well as the immune cell activity prior to the infection event itself for 16 volunteers. The teams at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and UCL then used single-cell sequencing to generate a dataset of over 600,000 individual cells.
Not all exposed participants went on to develop a COVID-19 infection, allowing the team to uncover unique immune responses associated with resisting sustained viral infection and disease.
The team discovered previously unreported responses involved in immediate virus detection. These included activation of specialized mucosal immune cells in the blood and a reduction in inflammatory white blood cells that normally engulf and destroy pathogens.
Individuals who immediately cleared the virus did not show a typical widespread immune response but instead mounted subtle, never-seen-before innate immune responses. The researchers suggest high levels of activity from the gene HLA-DQA2 before exposure also helped people prevent a sustained infection from taking hold. In contrast, the six individuals who developed a sustained SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibited a rapid immune response in the blood but a slower immune response in the nose, allowing the virus to establish itself there.
The researchers further identified common patterns among activated T cell receptors, which recognize and bind to virus-infected cells. This offers insights into immune cell communication and potential for developing targeted T cell therapies against not just COVID-19, but other diseases.
Lindeboom said, This was an incredibly unique opportunity to see what immune responses look like when encountering a new pathogenin adults with no prior history of COVID-19, in a setting where factors such as time of infection and comorbidities could be controlled.
Sarah Teichmann, senior author of the study, co-founder of the Human Cell Atlas, and of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, said, As were building the Human Cell Atlas we can better identify which of our cells are critical for fighting infections and understand why different people respond to coronavirus in varied ways.
Published 5:00 am Thursday, June 20, 2024
By Terry L. Hapney, Jr. The Ironton Tribune
Lawrence County Health Department (LCHD) Administrator Debbie Fisher says the dominant COVID-19 variant circulating now is KP.2. The more it spreads it changes, Fisher said. During the last two weeks of May, KP.2 was responsible for 28.5 percent of all COVID-19 cases. There are many strains of COVID-19, according to Fisher, who said it is likely to become like the flu and colds. A lot of colds are caused by coronavirus, Fisher said. As it circulates, it will become a lot like that. In March, the CDC provided guidance grouping COVID-19 with flu and other respiratory illnesses. They were all linked together in terms of how to deal with it, Fisher said. The greatest protection against COVID-19 is the vaccine, according to Fisher. Its a very good way to protect yourself against the disease being severe enough to be hospitalized or die, she said. Another way is to wash your hands frequently. When I was in nursing school, we learned the best way to stop disease is to wash your hands. Staying healthy, healthy eating, getting plenty of sleep and exercising regularly are all ways to prevent and/or minimize the impact of COVID-19. All the things we can do to protect ourselves every day are ways to help keep our immune system strong so that these germs dont hurt us as badly as they might otherwise, Fisher said. While she does not believe this strain will get any more severe than others, Fisher said the symptoms are the samestuffy nose, runny nose, cough, congestion and fever. Basically, they are the same as any other respiratory illness and for other COVIDs, she said. While the number of COVID-19 cases has dropped, there are still hospitalizations from it. Fisher said the Ohio Department of Health currently lists Lawrence County as 13th out of 88 counties in the state for the highest number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. Since January 1, 2020, Lawrence County has had 28,022 COVID-19 cases, with 1,368 hospitalizations and 301 deaths. Thats from the onset of this, Fisher said. From Jan. 1, 2024, Lawrence County has had 814 COVID-19 cases, 21 hospitalizations and three deathsthe last one a couple of months back. This past week, Lawrence County had six COVID-19 cases. Thats pretty good, Fisher said. Its still more than wed like. Its probably not as many as what we might really have. When people self-test, they dont always call and let us know. Fisher said if someone has COVID-19 and goes to a doctor, providers are required by law to report that to the Health Department. She said there are messages on the LCHD website and Facebook page asking people if they test positive to let them know. Recalling the early days and months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fisher said those who had it stayed in for 14 days. Now, the LCHD staff provides guidance based on the CDC recommendations released a few months ago. Stay home if youre having symptoms, Fisher said. If your symptoms are better after 24 hours and you are fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medicines, then you can go back to normal activities. The caveat with that is those who have COVID-19 should take precautions for the next five days. Wear a mask if youre able, Fisher said. If youre around a lot of people, thats probably a good idea. Fisher said after five days, a person who had COVID-19 is, typically, not contagious. The potential for serious illness and death, she said, is not as much as it was because so many more people are either vaccinated or they had it and have some resistance to it. For those who may have COVID-19 who self-test, their physician will likely want to conduct a confirmatory test. One course of action is for a physician to prescribe Paxlovid, the antiviral used for COVID-19 cases. Its amazing, Fisher said. I had COVID in 2021; I was so sick. I started Paxlovid and within 12 hours there was such a difference. Fisher said if someone gets COVID-19, the person should stay home, rest, treat the symptoms and reach out to a doctor for other treatments.
The Coronavirus outbreak (officially known as Covid-19), which started in China, has so far killed 6,311,923
people across the globe and infected 532,022,757 (as on May 31, 2022). The virus has spread to 228 countries. In India, 43,158,087 confirmed cases and 524,630 deaths have been reported so far, according to official figures released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). To check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, or Covid-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced nationwide lockdown till May, meaning the country's 1.3 billion citizens except those engaged in providing essential services would not step out of their homes. This lockdown was extended a couple of times and lifted in a graded way starting June 2020. The restrictions related to coronavirus spread will be lifted nation-wide from March 31, 2022.
Coronavirus in India and elsewhere: Total number of cases in India (state-wise) and all countries of the world
What is coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that are common among animals. In rare cases, they can be transmitted from animals to humans. The spikes protruding from the virus's membrane look like the sun's corona. It is from this that the virus gets the name 'coronavirus'. It causes illnesses of the respiratory tract, ranging from the common cold to severe conditions like SARS. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
What is the difference between Coronavirus and Covid-19
Covid-19 is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which originated from China's Wuhan. On February, World Health Organisation (WHO) named the novel coronavirus "Covid-19". "Co" stands for "corona", "vi" for "virus" and "d" for "disease", while "19" was for the year, as the outbreak was first identified on December 31.
According to the WHO, "there are different procedures, and purposes, for naming viruses and diseases.
"Viruses are named based on their genetic structure to facilitate the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines."
Viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
This particular virus was named "severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2" or SARS-CoV-2.
The WHO says that "from a risk communications perspective, using the name SARS can have unintended consequences in terms of creating unnecessary fear for some populations, especially in Asia which was worst affected by the SARS outbreak in 2003".
Symptoms of coronavirus
Coronavirus can make people sick, usually with a mild to moderate upper respiratory tract illness, similar to a common cold. Some of the symptoms are
A general feeling of being unwell
Runny nose
Sore throat
Headache
Cough
Fever
Is there a vaccine for coronavirus?
Plasma therapy a possible treatment for coronavirus?
With no surety of a definite treatment in sight, doctors around the world are dusting off a century-old treatment for infections: Infusion of blood plasma teeming with immune molecules that might help survivors beat the infection.Convalescent plasma is an experimental procedure for coronavirus patients.Clickhereto read more
Coronavirus helpline number and e-mail id
Union Health Ministry has activated a toll-free 24x7 national helpline number, 1075, to address queries related to the infection. Anyone seeking information can also call on the number 011-23978046.
The helpline e-mail ID for Coronavirus is ncov2019[at]gmail[dot]com
AI chatbot - A WhatsApp helpline to answer queries about Coronavirus
An AI-based automated helpline helps to address queries regarding Covid-19. The AI chatbot is integrated in WhatsApp and can be reached by any users by messaging on +91-93213-98773. The chatbot is privately operated, and is promoted by Mumbai-based startup Haptik. While not being an official helpline, an information source such as nCov is useful in helping individuals get a quick response to common queries on Coronavirus.
Who is more likely to be a victim coronavirus?
How do you catch coronavirus?
Will the coronavirus spread through cough or sex?
How dangerous is coronavirus? Does coronavirus cause death?
A few coronaviruses are known to be deadly. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which was first reported in the Middle East, causes severe respiratory problems. Four out of every 10 patients infected with MERS died in 2012.
The infamous Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) causes even more severe symptoms. Along with respiratory problems, it also causes diarrhoea, shortness of breath, fatigue and kidney failure. The death rate with SARS was higher, with older people being the most vulnerable.
The new virus (Covid-19) claimed over 3,000 lives and over 93,000 people were diagnosed positive.
How is coronavirus diagnosed?
Doctors may recommend the patient to undergo tests on respiratory specimens and serum to detect coronaviruses. If anyone experiences the symptoms, they must inform their doctor about recent travel or contact with animals.
How contagious is coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are highly contagious. Coughing and sneezing without covering the mouth can spread the virus.
Touching hands of a person that has the virus can pass the virus from one person to another
Making contact with an object that has the virus and then touching your nose, eyes, or mouth can infect a person
A coronavirus may spread through contact with feces.
Coronavirus and pregnancy
In pregnant women, the severe versions of SARS and MERS coronaviruses were found to be severe. According to reports, women who suffered from severe versions of coronaviruses had stillbirth.
What are the precautions for Coronavirus?
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unclean hands
Avoid close contact with people who are sick
Avoid public gatherings
bunditinay / iStock
A new report in Emerging Infectious Diseases reveals an 11.8% prevalence of long COVID during the Omicron BA.5 wave in Japan, based on outcomes seen among 25,911 adults 20 years and older.
Japan experienced the seventh wave of COVID-19 in July 2022, caused by the Omicron subvariant BA.5 lineage, the authors said.
"The Omicron variant tends to cause less severe acute symptoms and has a similar or lower risk for postCOVID-19 condition than the previous variant," the authors wrote. "Longer sequelae and risks for postCOVID-19 condition in persons infected with the Omicron variant compared with noninfected populations remain unknown."
The study was based on adults 20 to 69 years of age who had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection during July to August 2022 and answered a survey about the presence of 26 symptoms roughly 6 months following their Omicron infection. Cases were matched with controls, and any symptoms were ranked on severity and impact on daily activities.
The percentage of postCOVID-19 condition for cases was 11.8%, and the percentage of persistent symptoms among controls was 5.5%. According to the authors, the most frequent postCOVID-19 condition was cough (3.7%), followed by difficulty concentrating (3.1%), hair loss (2.8%), fatigue (2.4%), and brain fog (2.2%).
The odds ratio (OR) of any persistent symptoms for cases versus controls was 2.33 (95% confidence interval, 2.05 to 2.64).
Among the cases, female sex, underlying medical conditions, and severity of acute COVID-19 were associated with having postCOVID-19 condition.
"Among the cases, female sex, underlying medical conditions, and severity of acute COVID-19 were associated with having postCOVID-19 condition. We recommend a longer follow-up study of the effects on daily life and socioeconomic status after infection during the Omicron-dominant wave," the authors concluded.
The U.S. Department of Defense ran a secret psychological operation on social media for over a year, aimed at undermining Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies. Utilizing fake accounts, it questioned the efficacy and religious permissibility of China's vaccines across multiple countries. While some U.S. officials objected, the controversial campaign continued through both Trump and Biden administrations before ending in mid-2021.#ChineseVaccine #Covid19 #Covid19Vaccine #Sinovac #Covaxin #Covishield #ChinavsUS #Pentagon #Indianews #Worldnews #Oneindia #Oneindianews ~PR.320~ED.102~HT.318~GR.121~
Long covid, the symptoms that can linger for months or even years after infection with the pandemic virus, is still a subject of considerable uncertainty. The virus can damage the body in a multitude of ways, leading researchers to list more than 200 symptoms, and there is no single diagnostic test or cure. But even with the unknowns, evidence suggests that long covid could burden millions of people. Its effects on individuals, but also on society at large could be protracted and expensive.
This is the implication of two just-published studies from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The first study, published on June 5, examined the potential impairment and disability caused by long covid. The second study, published on June 11, provided a much-needed consensus definition there have been numerous different ones previously to help patients, doctors, researchers and policymakers work from the same page.
The new definition states that long covid is an infection-associated chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection, is present for at least 3 months and is a continuous, relapsing and remitting, or progressive disease state that affects one of more organ systems. The definition adds that long covid can manifest itself in multiple ways, can range from mild to severe; impact children and adults; follow asymptomatic, mild or severe covid; and exacerbate preexisting health conditions.
The first study says the symptoms of long covid include: chronic fatigue, cognitive difficulties, sleep disturbances, muscle and joint pain, and brain fog that encompasses inattention, forgetfulness and inability to concentrate or form words. Long covid can impact people across the life span, from children to older adults, as well as across sex, gender, racial, ethnic, and other demographic groups, the study found. There is as yet no diagnostic test for long covid, and because pandemic viral testing was so uneven, the study suggests that a positive coronavirus test should not be the sole criterion for diagnosing long covid. New research from Washington University in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care system finds that patients who were hospitalized with covid are more likely to have serious health impacts several years later.
Researchers are just beginning to characterize the mechanisms and health effects of long covid. Still unknown is the degree to which it will add to the burden of disability, over the baseline morbidity people would have experienced without it. Along with the health effects might come a fiscal one: If long covid prevents people from working or studying, it could lead to a wave of disability claims to governments, a significant new social expense.
The first study notes that the Social Security Administration runs two programs to provide disability benefits: Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI, and Supplemental Security Income, or SSI. As of December, 8.5 million Americans received benefits through SSDI and 7.4 million Americans through SSI. Based on population surveys, the researchers found, in 2022 approximately 8.9 million adults in the United States reported long covid symptoms. Just recently, a separate study found an estimated 6.9 percent of adults 17.8 million had ever had long covid as of early 2023. So far, applications for disability benefits have remained flat since the onset of the pandemic. But if some fraction of those who had long covid apply and qualify for benefits, that would mean sizable new spending.
To receive U.S. disability benefits today, an applicant must meet a statutory definition of disability, which for adults is the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment that can lead to death or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. The process of determining whether an individual qualifies is based in part on the Social Security Administrations Listing of Impairments so far, long covid is not included, although disability from long covid can be established with certain medical evidence. Importantly, the study points out there are three frequently reported health effects that can significantly interfere with the ability to perform work or school activities and might not be captured in the listings: chronic fatigue, cognitive impairment, and dysfunction of the nerves that control body functions such as heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, digestion and sensation.. According to the first study, the Social Security Administration is already expanding its guidance for dealing with long covid applicants.
These studies are early warnings in what will probably be a long process. The nation must prepare to cope accurately and compassionately with a wave of illness and impairment that might come.
