The yet invisible side of Covid-19

Okay, it feels a little bit awkward to write about something personal on LinkedIn and even more so when it concerns a medical issue, but I think this needs to be shared. For people feeling sick for a long time and wondering what is happening with them, for their family and friends to understand, and for patients (and employers!) not to push too much too soon: know that Covid-19 is not a binary phenomenon...

In the media it seems you either get rid of the disease hardly noticing it, or you end up in hospital (almost) dying. That doesn’t make sense, there must be a spectrum between those 2 extremes, and the more you move to the direction of severe, the more monitoring there should be. Many people suffer from Covid-19 much longer than the 2-3 weeks we hear about. And not everyone would say their symptoms are 'mild'. The percentage or amount of people with the 'not so mild' version is yet unknown and 'mild' seems to actually be a large array of symptoms. What many of us mild cases have in common though, is the surprise of several relapses over time varying in symptoms and intensity. And mind you, 63% of the respondents of the survey mentioned in the article are between 30 and 49, and 12% between 20 and 29 years old. Source: COVID-19 Prolonged Symptoms Survey - Analysis Report, by Body Politic Slack Group

This needs attention for the reasons mentioned above, but also from a medical perspective, because how do we know our organs are functioning well when for a long period blood pressure shows strange values, heart rate is high, lungs and respiratory system are burning, other organs hurt, and more symptoms come and go? What are the consequences on the longer term and for how many people?

And then I didn't even mention the effect on the economy when a growing percentage of the labor force isn't able to work for weeks/months, which will get worse when people are pushed too much while not fully recovered. Day 51 since my first symptoms and still hardly able to function, not such a good position for an independent professional and her start-up partners.