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| NYC 2015 |
Meghan O’Rourke authors a long article in the March 8
Atlantic, “Unlocking the Mysteries of Long COVID”, link
The narrative begins with the work of a physician
Zijian Chen, at Mt Sinai in NYC, after he was appointed to be in charge of
post-COVID care in the spring of 2020. He saw many more patients than he had
expected, including other physicians and professionals (one was a dietician).
Many of them were relatively young (even under 40) and
many were women, who were not supposed to be as vulnerable to severe COVID as
men. They reported having “mild” cases. But they seemed to have trouble with breathing
and heart rate, “brain fog” and muscle pains, sometimes digestion.
The underlying problem is dysautonomia, abnormal
function of the autonomous nervous system. The virus seems to damage the peripheral
nervous system even in mild cases, maybe through autoimmunity. The article also
discusses a condition called POTS, “postural orthostatic tachycardic syndrome”. Of some help in therapy is retraining patients to breathe more deeply, which may be difficult because of some lung scarring.
It is unusual for a respiratory virus to cause so much
systemic damage (enteroviruses are more likely to do this) but that is partly
because the virus can lock onto receptors that many tissues have, especially
ACE2, a capability that evolved with
bats, with their high metabolisms.
We could have a public health problem for years, where
10-30% of those with noticeable disease fight off the disability caused by “long
hauler COVID”. Who pays for this.
You have to wonder, when people belligerently say they
won’t wear masks, if, outside of possibly believing in the hoax theory, simply believe
in “survival of the fittest”, literally, that the disease is a purge of the unworthy
whom the virus has tested, and that belief certainly comports with fascism. It certainly can drive the angry indignation
of the “left”.
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