Long COVID: answers emerge on how many people get better "More than three years after SARS-CoV-2 began its global spread, an estimated 65 million or more people1 are still living with the often devastating effects of long COVID — and scientists are still struggling to understand this complex condition. Even the definition of long COVID, whose symptoms include headaches, fatigue, ‘brain fog’ and more, is debated. Its causes are also elusive. But researchers now have enough data to provide some preliminary answers to urgent questions about the condition, such as the timescale for possible improvement, factors that raise the risk of developing long COVID, and what can be done to prevent it." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02121-7
So good to see an article in a serious journal that discusses predisposing, precipitating, preventative and perpetuating factors of Long Covid that makes no mention anywhere if psychological factors, presumably because the authors found no evidence that psych problems have any role in Long Covid cause or course.
Also, this: https://twitter.com/user/status/1674087893835431943 The messaging is so confused and all over the place, even from the same sources, even on the same day. Millions are suffering, no one knows what to do, are clearly left behind. Also: just wish upon a star and maybe you won't be one of the ones left behind, it's all good, there is hope, just like there is hope out of poverty in winning the lottery. Since they admit they don't know what to do, how does it make sense to attribute improvements to services that, by their own admission, don't know what they're doing? Who are barely seeing a fraction of patients? The implications of natural recoveries and remissions are vastly different, so they keep being credited to things that cannot possibly make a difference. Because hopium. The obsessive belief over placebo/nocebo has made it impossible to be honest and factual in some areas. Can't handle the truth, facts are constantly politicized and framed from a PR perspective first.
The numbers from the article: At 6 months, 22.9% had symptoms At 1 year, 18.5% had symptoms. Thus 81% of the people who were sick at 6 months, remained sick at 1 year. At 2 years, 17.2% had symptoms. Thus 75% of those sick at 6 months remained sick. This assumes the rate of onset after 6 months was negligible, a safe assumption. These recovery rates are very low, and underscore the importance of understanding the pathology of LC and finding treatments.
US Federal Reserve Economic Data: Disability statistics. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU00074597 34.15 million people 16y+, with a disability.
