San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Study examines lasting symptoms
More than one in eight adults infected with the coronavirus experience symptoms associated with long COVID, according to a large study published in The Lancet.
The study compared the long-term symptoms of individuals before and after their COVID-19 diagnoses with a matched control group of COVID-19-negative participants.
“Most previous research into long COVID has not looked at the frequency of these symptoms in people who haven’t been diagnosed with COVID-19 or looked at individual patients’ symptoms before the diagnosis of COVID-19,” said Professor Judith Rosmalen of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, lead author of the study which was conducted between March 2020 and August 2021.
Fatigue and breathlessness were among the most common symptoms reported, but other symptoms such as chest pain were also more common in people who had COVID-19 than in those who remained uninfected.
“Current evidence supports the view that long COVID is common and can persist for at least 2 years after SARS-CoV-2 infection, although severe
debilitating disease is present in a minority,” the report said.
of caution,” will abide by the “strict isolation measures” in place since his “rebound” infection was detected July 30, pending a follow-up negative result.
Biden, 79, came down with the virus a second time three days after he had emerged from isolation from his initial bout with COVID-19, reported on July 21. There have been rebound cases documented among a small minority of those, who like Biden, were prescribed the anti-viral medication Paxlovid, which has been proved to reduce the risk of serious illness and death from the virus among those at highest risk.
Biden was “doing great,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Biden’s travel has been on hold as he awaited a negative test. He plans to visit Kentucky on Monday to view damage from catastrophic flooding and meet with families.