Virus symptoms linger, months after infection
They caught the coronavirus months ago and survived it, but they are still stuck at home, gasping for breath. They are no longer contagious, but some feel so ill that they can barely walk around the block, and others grow dizzy trying to cook dinner. Month after month, they rush to the hospital with new symptoms, pleading with doctors for answers.
As the coronavirus has spread through the United States over seven months, infecting at least 7 million people, some subset of them are now suffering from serious, debilitating and mysterious effects of COVID-19 that last far longer than a few days or weeks.
This group of patients wrestling with an array of alarming symptoms many months after first getting ill — they have come to call themselves “long-haulers” — are believed to number in the thousands. Their circumstances, still little understood by the medical community, may play a significant role in shaping the country’s ability to recover from the pandemic.
By some estimates, as many as 1 in 3 COVID-19 patients will develop symptoms that linger. The symptoms can span a wide range — piercing chest pain, deep exhaustion, a racing heart. Those affected include young and otherwise healthy people. One theory is that an overzealous immune system plays a role.
Some are unable to work. Many may need long-term medical care. Still, many say their biggest challenge is getting other people simply to believe them.
“The first few months, I didn’t believe myself,” said Karla Monterroso, 39, of Los Angeles, who leads an organization that advocates for the representation of Black and Latinx people in tech, but has not been able to work full time since March.
“Is this in my head? she wondered. “When I got the antibody test a few weeks ago saying I had a positive antibody test, I sobbed for like an hour. I was like, it is written on paper that this is what happened to me. Before then, you’re sitting there constantly questioning your own body, and no one in the medical community believes you.”
Candace Taylor, 38, was working in the billing and collections department of an Atlanta hospital when she tested positive for the virus in March. She described long-term coronavirus symptoms and a worsening of a previous chronic pain condition, 189 day after getting sick.
“I’ve had chest pain every day since March,” she said. “I’ve developed internal shaking. I get the dizzy spells. I’ve developed tachycardia. Tiny blood clots. Ear popping. I’ve lost my voice.
“There are days I go without talking. I kept asking, when is this going to stop? I couldn’t lay flat. I had to sleep in a recliner for over 2½ months. At one point, I was thinking about a will. I was thinking I wasn’t going to make it.”
Tony Pinero, 57, owned a ride share business in Las Vegas, Nev., before testing positive for the virus in July.
“They say you don’t have COVID anymore, you are COVID-free, but that is not true,” he said. “Now I have postCOVID, and post-COVID seems like it’s worse. I still have the headaches. I still feel dizzy. The thing that worries me the most is me being winded all the time. It’s hard for me to walk up the stairs.
“My doctor is saying, ‘Hey, Tony, it’s just in your head.’ No it’s not. It’s not in my head. I don’t want to sit here and not be able to breathe.
“I don’t want to sit here and stay and do nothing,” he added. “I want to go to work. I have to pay my car payments. I’ve got to pay my credit cards. I’ve got to pay my bills. Why would I want to sit at home?”