This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org. When Patricia Anderson got COVID-19 at the very start of the pandemic, she was lucky in a sense. She never went to the hospital, despite her body temperature dropping to 93 degrees. In March 2020, many patients were told not to seek emergency care unless they had a fever of 104 degrees or higher. COVID-19 was a newly emerging threat and at the time, there were few avenues of treatment.
While the worst of the symptoms eventually faded, Anderson never really got better. She is one of the estimated 7 to 23 million Americans with long COVID — a condition which can encompass symptoms such as respiratory distress, cough, “brain fog,” fatigue, and malaise, that last 12 weeks or longer after initial infection. These ongoing symptoms, and resulting impairments, are a long term challenge as both employers and workers navigate an ever-mutating virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in five COVID survivors younger than 65 experienced at least one incident that might be related to previous COVID-19 infection. Among those 65 and older, the rate was one in four. Their data also show that nearly three times as many people age 50 to 59 currently have long COVID than those 80 or older. Experts believe that older cohorts may have more resistance thanks to a higher proportion …