How soon should you go back to work after Covid?
Will President Trump’s swift return set back his recovery? Luke Mintz asks the experts
With typical bombast, Donald Trump announced his return to presidential duties on Monday with a schmaltzy, Independence Day- style video in which he was shown disembarking his Marine One helicopter and striding up the lawn to the White House, where he removed his mask and saluted his soldiers – all to the tune of soaring, patriotic music. “Don’t be afraid of Covid, don’t let it dominate your life,” he tweeted. “I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
The President’s decision to return to work just three days after being taken to Walter Reed hospital with Covid-19 symptoms attracted rebuke from public health officials on both sides of the Atlantic. Trump and his wife Melania tested positive on Thursday evening, five days after hosting the Rose Garden event at which he is believed to have become infected (eight attendees have now tested positive, most of whom sat in close vicinity; few wore masks). That places the overweight, 74-year-old President squarely inside the danger zone: according to doctors, serious, life-threatening complications are most likely to emerge five to 10 days after you first notice symptoms.
It was at the later end of this window that Boris Johnson was taken to hospital, in April, after his condition deteriorated from what had initially been described as “mild” symptoms. No wonder, then, that Trump was audibly breathless after climbing the White House stairs on Monday.
So, how soon is too soon to return to work after recovering from Covid? Our experts offer some advice.
Day one to 10: the eye of the storm
It is unclear exactly how much work Trump will now undertake, but he has promised to be “back on the campaign trail soon,” and his spokesman says he “intends to be ready” to appear at the next election debate in Miami next week.
Still, doctors were baffled by the sight of the President returning to his desk on day four of the disease, when the virus may be approaching its most dangerous. Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical School in Tennessee, branded the President’s back-to-normal message “dangerous”; while Dr Bharat Pankhania, a clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter, urges Trump and other public figures to avoid the “macho” temptation to make a show of brushing off the virus.
“The biology and virology don’t reward you for being a macho person,” says Dr Pankhania, who explains illness is a “biological signal telling you to stop whatever you’re doing, rest and recuperate. That’s why you feel ill, your body is saying, ‘Give me a break’.”
But for some white-collar professionals, the ability to work from home makes it tempting to follow Trump’s example. Others feel pressured by their bosses. Patrick Stevens*, 28, a public affairs consultant from south London, was working remotely when he developed a cough and fever, and soon after lost his senses of smell and taste. He asked his boss for time off – but just three days later resumed work from his bedroom, battling through coughing fits on Zoom meetings.
“I was still dry coughing all the time, and still pretty tired,” he remembers. “But I realised I would probably have symptoms for weeks – was I really going to be off for that long?”
This slow, testing-the-water strategy is fine, doctors say, but in the first 10 days of infection patients should think very carefully before attempting any work that is too physically or intellectually tasking. “If you feel up to answering a few emails, it’s up to you,” says Dr Pankhania. “[But in general], it’s better to switch off from work mode.”
Day 10 to 14: symptoms start to recede
Typically, this is when your fever fades and your breathing improves. After long, boring days spent in aimless self-isolation, it can be tempting to return to work, or to venture outside for a jog. And the Government won won’t t stop you: according to the NHS, you’re allowed owed to return to society after fter 10 days (so long as you don’t n’t still have a fever), starting arting from when you first noticed symptoms s or first received a positive result, whichever er came later. But here comes the kicker. That hat 10-day figure is designed only to stop you u from infecting others – it tells us nothing othing about what is good ood for your health. Dr r Jeffrey A Woods, who researches the effect of exercise on the immune mune system at the University y of
Illinois, advises dvises against strenuous exercise in this window. “Typically, recovery from respiratory viral infections takes two to three weeks, which corresponds with the time it takes your immune system to generate cytotoxic T-cells necessary to clear the virus from infected cells,” he says.
As for returning to work, Dr Pankhania says your best sign is “your inner self ”, and you should avoid forcing yourself back if you don’t feel up to it. It is not a matter of laziness, he says, but a health issue. “Some people limp along even if they feel unwell, because they purposefully ignore their internal signals.”
Day 14 onwards: return to normal
After two to three weeks, most people are very unlikely still to be ill, though some after-effects might linger for months (particularly a loss of smell). At this point, doctors say, you should try your best to return to normal, but bear in mind that Covid is a mysterious illness that can affect you in unpredictable ways for weeks. Paul Power, 52, a police officer from Merseyside, thought he had suffered only a mild case after spending a week in bed with flu-like symptoms in March. Four weeks later, he felt mostly fine and so tried to return to his routine of jogging, but quickly found himself panting for breath. It may well have knocked him back in his recovery, he thinks. Indeed, a handful of small studies now suggest that Covid can damage the heart, and that exercising too early might contribut contribute to “long Covid” – when symptom symptoms linger for weeks or even months. A At Ohio State University, a me medical study of 26 young, healthy athletes who had recently recove recovered from the disease found that fourf four s showed evidence of heart iinflam inflammation (two of whomm whom had never noticed any symp symptoms). This miight might a also explain why s some ome og El doctors, including GP Ellie Cannon, comm commented that Boris John Johnson sounded shor short of breath at his first back-to-work pres press conference – more than a month aafter after he tested positive. For obvious reasons, hee he has b been unable to folloow follow u universal medical advicee advice for those returning to work a after their own brush with the virus: take it easy.
‘The biology and virology don’t reward you for being macho’