Well-known, famous people with Covid-19 and Long Covid

More interviews with activist Matt McGorry. He is really putting himself out there and educating the public about LC.

If I had discovered and really understood pacing sooner, I feel like I probably would have a better baseline than I do right now. I was still working out, lifting weights, even going to physical therapy for [an injury]. If I had had that knowledge sooner, I think it would have been helpful, and perhaps, saved me some decline.

LINK
 
Don’t know if this post belongs in this thread….

Celtics' Porzingis excels in return from 'frustrating' illness

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44270352/kristaps-porzingis-excels-return-frustrating-illness

"It was extremely, extremely frustrating, just not knowing what I had," said Porzingis, who added it was an upper respiratory illness that developed into something like bronchitis or mononucleosis. "But I haven't been this sick for probably ever in my life. So, I was really, for a week, really just laying at home trying to recover. And after that, I had lingering fatigue -- and I still have it a little bit -- but at least I'm not getting into shape to be able to play.

"But after each workout I was, boom, big crash. I was really, really fatigued. Like, not normal. So, yeah, it's taking a little bit longer, but I'm doing everything, all my bio-hacking stuff that I know, and just trying to get back in the best shape possible."
 
I’ve just remembered Gary Frankum, a UK speedway rider with ME, who raised quite a bit of awareness at the time. Haven’t heard anything about him in years.
 
Engadget: Subset Games co-founder Jay Ma went through hell to make Fulcrum Defender

(For background see eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Breach and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light)

The story of Fulcrum Defender begins following a trip Ma made to Vancouver, Canada in August 2023 to see Subset co-founder Matt Davis and a few other members of the studio in-person. At the time, the team was working on more than one game. According to Ma, one of the larger, more promising projects was "struggling," but the trip led to a breakthrough. Then, she caught Covid-19.
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She returned to her home in Kyoto, Japan, quarantined and eventually recovered from the acute symptoms, but never bounced back completely. "I think it was the first day that I went out to be outside, bike, do normal things, and I just completely shut down," she said. "I couldn't get out of bed for like four days." She realized she was experiencing long Covid.
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As we chatted over Google Meet, Ma frequently took long pauses to piece together her memories and find the right words to express her loss. "I'm a different person," she told me after one such break. "I walk around with a cane. I need to structure exactly how I do something outside. I need to know where all the chairs are. I walk at a grandma's pace, and I'm constantly forced to maintain awareness of my physical state, because if I do too much, it's already too late. It makes everything feel dangerous."
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For the first four months of her illness, Ma couldn't work at all. "Even even when I was more used to needing to pace myself, not only was it harder to do things that used to come naturally to me, but I would also get lost in my own head," she said. She worried she might never make games again.
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"I would wake up in the morning and think about the game and make progress every day – even if it was only a couple of hours – that did something really important for my psychological state," she said.
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Ma hasn't found a doctor in Japan who knows enough about the illness to offer her a conclusive diagnosis, and the state of research on long Covid in general is nascent. "They hate to make uncertain calls," she explained.
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"I feel like I need to live with the possibility that it won't go away, so I just sort of operate with that mindset," she told me. "This illness has shrunk my world and perception of time considerably. My memory is way worse. I'll forget what happened like a week ago, and I don't really think about the future at all. And so I'm just in a constant present. It feels like I'm being forced to train to be a monk."
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Ma has been through so much, and yet Fulcrum Defender isn't a game about chronic health concerns, disability or memory loss. It seems to studiously avoid borrowing any biographical detail from Ma's life whatsoever. People will play and enjoy it knowing nothing of the challenging circumstances in which it was made.
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Jaybee00 said:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1921287730299822447


Report on Porzingis.
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Another source:

The Sporting News: 'Kristaps Porzingis health updates: Illness timeline, return status for Celtics star'
Earlier this year, Porzingis dealt with an upper respiratory illness that forced him to miss eight games at the end of February and beginning of March. On Tuesday, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla hinted at the fact that Porzingis is still dealing with the lingering symptoms of that illness, which played a role in his limited action during Game 1.

"He had been working through it since he's gotten back, and he's done a great job of being available," Mazzulla said, via Noa Dalzell. "It was just hard for him to continue yesterday."

In March, Porzingis described what he dealt with when he first got the illness.

"I haven’t been this sick, probably ever, in my life," he said. "After each workout, I was — boom, big crash. Really fatigued. Not normal."

It is still unclear what illness exactly Porzingis has, but it seems as though it is something he will be dealing with in the playoffs moving forward. While Mazzulla declared both Porzingis and forward Sam Hauser as "day-to-day" on Tuesday, the Celtics declared Porzingis "probable" for Game 2 on Wednesday.
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Jonathan Toews aiming for NHL return next season

Toews, 37, last played during the 2022-23 season. In August 2023, he announced he was stepping away from hockey "to give myself the time and space to fully heal and enjoy life to the fullest once again."

The Winnipeg native also missed the full 2020-21 bubble season while recovering from COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome.

After his NHL exit, Toews remained out of the spotlight until November when he shared on Instagram that he had undergone an Ayurvedic Panchakarma detox in India. In a GQ interview, he discussed in depth the many layers of that detox, which included painful massages, meditative yoga and daily laxatives among other treatments.
 
More in the self-limited category, but it speaks for how widespread this problem can be without most of the public, and the medical profession, noticing it.

I just finished John Scalzi's Starter Villain (published in 2023), fun story, and in the acknowledgements he mentions that he had a mild case of COVID, recovered fine physically, but that it "scrambled his brain" for months, and had to work with his publisher to handle the delays it caused.

I don't see how practicing clinicians can know about most of this considering what their official sources tell them. It's absurd how blind they are flying here, still holding on to their fairy tales about pandemic stress, or whatever.
 
Brian Wilson "went silent' and "became detached" after battling Covid-19

Brian Wilson "went silent" and "became detached" as he battled the long-term effects of COVID-19, according to his bandmate Al Jardine.

The Beach Boys legend passed away on Wednesday (11.06.25) at the age of 82 after a long battle with health issues and his close friend Al has now opened up about the "turning point" back in 2022 when he saw the singer/songwriter begin to deteriorate.

Al told Variety: "There was no trauma to speak of until that very last tour in ’22. He kind of went silent and began to suffer the effects of long-term COVID, I was told, so I think that was a turning point for him. He became detached."
 
Jonathan Toews battles Long Covid and Chronic Illness to forge an inspiring NHL comeback odyssey

Toews’ return to the NHL is more than just a personal victory; it is a beacon of hope for those battling similar health issues. His journey underscores the importance of perseverance and the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity. For the Chicago Blackhawks, having their captain back is a morale boost, reigniting the spark of leadership and experience that Toews brings to the team.

Reflecting on Toews’ Legacy

As Jonathan Toews steps back onto the ice, he carries with him not just the weight of his past struggles but also the hopes of many who look up to him. His legacy is one of courage and resilience, qualities that have defined his career and continue to inspire both on and off the rink. The future holds many possibilities, and Toews’ story is a reminder that with determination and heart, even the most daunting challenges can be overcome.
 
Ugh. Of course it's nice for the individual who has recovered, but all the stuff about the power of human spirit to overcome adversity, and determination is so insulting to people who don't have the good fortune to recover.

I reckon it takes much more determination and heart to go on coping with very severe illness for people who don't have his good fortune.
 
The whole “war” metaphor for illness really disturbs me.
“warrior”, “fighting”, “battle”, “spirit”, “strength”, “victory”, “willpower”.

It feels deeply insulting to those who don’t “win”.

I can’t imagine the impact those sorts of metaphors have on someone who dies from cancer.

Edit: And it ties right into the “moralisation of health” individualism that seems very popular right now. (The whole wellness culture “If you do healthy things you’ll be healthy” and “Illness happens because you did something wrong” schtick)
 
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