Bored with COVID? Me too, but I'd still like to avoid long COVID

Canada, like everywhere else, is experiencing yet another new wave of COVID-19. Like many a wave before, pretty much everyone knows someone who has it, or has had it, recently. Most people have not had that bad a time of it, certainly not compared to the early variants, although hospitalizations (especially when we add on influenza, RSV, etc, as well) are surging to crisis levels again, even if ICU rooms are not as overwhelmed as they once were. The new JN.1 variant is not as nasty as some variants that have gone before, but it is still hospitalizing, and even killing, some older and immune-compromised individuals.

Even if you feel like you are officially over it, COVID is not to be taken lightly, and not least because of the continuing risk of long COVID. I have talked about long COVID several times over the last few years. But it's hard to get too worked up about something that will probably not affect you, isn't it?

But therein lies the rub. You see, long COVID is actually way more common than you probably think. According to the Canadian COVID-19 Antibody and Health Survey, about 3.5 million (11.7% of the total adult population, or about 1 in 9) have experienced long-term symptoms after a COVID infection and, as of June 2023, 2.1 million (6.8% of all adults) were still reporting symptoms, with half of them reporting little more no improvement over time.

Given that an estimated 64% of the Canadian adult population has had COVID-19 at some point (almost certainly a large underestimate), then by my calculations at least 18% of those who have been infected with COVID have gone on to experience long COVID symptoms (nearly 1 in 5!) And the more times you contract the virus, the greater the chance of your ending up with long COVID.

Lots of research is being carried out on long COVID, but there is still much that remains unknown. Because of the way COVID attaches to, and gains access to, the body's cells, it can affect any or almost all of the body's systems and organs (unlike the flu virus, for example, which only affects the cells of the lungs). This is why such a bewildering range of different symptoms can present themselves with a COVID infection (up to 100!), and why long COVID can manifest in so many different ways, with fatigue (65%), brain fog (39%) and shortness of breath (28%) being the most common.

Vaccinations are having less and less effectiveness against the new COVID strains (although they do still reduce the severity of the infection if you do catch it). However, it's still in everyone's interests to avoid the virus if at all possible. So, masks in enclosed spaces, avoid superspreader-type events, frequent hand-washing, improve ventilation where you can, etc, etc. I know, boring! But you might thank me one day.