Posted on 07/31/2022 11:58:20 AM PDT by BenLurkin
More than two years after Georgia Linders first got sick with COVID, her heart still races at random times.
She's often exhausted. She can't digest certain foods.
Most days, she runs a fever, and when her temperature gets up past a certain point, her brain feels like goo, she says.
These are commonly reported symptoms of long COVID.
Linders really noticed problems with her brain when she returned to work in the spring and summer of 2020. Her job required her to be on phone calls all day, coordinating with health clinics that service the military. It was a lot of multitasking, something she excelled at before COVID.
After COVID, the brain fog and fatigue slowed her down immensely. In the fall of 2020, she was put on probation. After 30 days, she thought her performance had improved. She'd certainly felt busy.
"But my supervisor brought up my productivity, which was like a quarter of what my coworkers were doing," she says.
It was demoralizing. Her symptoms worsened. She was given another 90-day probation, but she decided to take medical leave. On June 2, 2021, Linders was terminated.
She filed a discrimination complaint with the government, but it was dismissed. She could have sued but wasn't making enough money to hire a lawyer.
As the number of people with post-COVID symptoms soars, researchers and the government are trying to get a handle on how big an impact long COVID is having on the U.S. workforce. It's a pressing question, given the fragile state of the economy. For more than a year, employers have faced staffing problems, with jobs going unfilled month after month.
Now, millions of people may be sidelined from their jobs due to long COVID. Katie Bach, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, drew on survey data from the Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the Lancet to come up with what she says is a conservative estimate: 4 million full-time equivalent workers out of work because of long COVID.
"That is just a shocking number," says Bach. "That's 2.4% of the U.S. working population."
Long COVID can be a disability under federal law The Biden administration has already taken some steps to try to protect workers and keep them on the job, issuing guidance that makes clear that long COVID can be a disability and relevant laws would apply. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example, employers must offer accommodations to workers with disabilities unless doing so presents an undue burden.
Linders now she thinks back to what she should have asked for after her return to work. She was already working from home due to the pandemic, but perhaps she could have been given a lighter workload. Maybe her supervisor could have held off on disciplinary action.
"Maybe I wouldn't have gotten as sick as I got, because I wouldn't have been pushing myself to do the things that I knew couldn't do, but I kept trying and trying," she says.
Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has seen COVID play out in similar ways in other patients.
"If someone has to go back 100% when they start feeling a little bit better, they are going to crash and burn fast," she says.
The problem with coming up with accommodations for long COVID is that there are so many unknowns. The duration and severity of symptoms varies wildly from person to person.
Gutierrez finds herself stumped by questions on disability forms that ask how long an individual might be out or how long their illness may last.
"This is a new condition," she says. "We don't know."
Accommodations in the workplace might include flexibility in where someone works, extended leave, or a new role in a different department. The goal is to get workers on a path back, says Roberta Etcheverry, CEO of Diversified Management Group, a disability management consulting firm.
But with long COVID, it's difficult to measure whether an employee is in fact on a path back.
"This isn't a sprain or strain where somebody turns an ankle and we know in x amount of months, they're going to be at this point," she says. "It's not — somebody was helping move a patient, and they hurt their back, and they can't do that kind of work anymore. They need to do something else."
With long COVID, symptoms come and go, and new symptoms may arise.
The Labor Department is urging employers not to rule out accommodations for employees who don't get an official long COVID diagnosis.
"Rather than determining whether an employee has a disability, your focus should be on the employee's limitations and whether there are effective accommodations that would enable the employee to perform essential job functions," the Labor Department says in its long COVID guide for employers.
Accommodations may be harder to come by in some jobs Still, not all employers have the means to offer the kind of accommodation an employee may need given their symptoms.
Bilal Qizilbash believes he would have been fired long ago had he not been the boss of his own company.
"Majority of my team has no idea that I'm working from bed most of the time," says Qizilbash, a COVID long hauler who suffers chronic pain that he compares to wasp stings.
As the CEO of a small business that manufactures health supplements, Qizilbash says he tries to be compassionate and at the same time, ruthlessly efficient. Having one employee whose productivity is severely compromised could end up negatively impacting the whole company, he says.
In other professions, it may be challenging to find accommodations that work, no matter how generous.
In South Florida, Karyn Bishof was a new recruit with the Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue team in 2020 when she contracted COVID, likely at a training, she says. She comes from a family of firefighters, and it was her lifelong dream to follow suit. She was excelling in her training and receiving high marks when she got sick, she says. Now long COVID has left her with profound brain fog, fatigue, light-headedness and a slew of other symptoms incompatible with fighting fires.
In other professions, it may be challenging to find accommodations that work, no matter how generous.
In South Florida, Karyn Bishof was a new recruit with the Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue team in 2020 when she contracted COVID, likely at a training, she says. She comes from a family of firefighters, and it was her lifelong dream to follow suit. She was excelling in her training and receiving high marks when she got sick, she says. Now long COVID has left her with profound brain fog, fatigue, light-headedness and a slew of other symptoms incompatible with fighting fires.
"I couldn't run into a burning building if I can't regulate my temperature," she says. "If I can't control having hypertension, I can't lift up a patient or I'm going to pass out."
The city of Palm Beach Gardens told NPR Bishof was terminated from her job for not meeting performance-related probationary standards. Bishof recently filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city and has become an advocate for COVID long haulers.
The Labor Department is crowdsourcing ideas for how to keep workers employed Taryn Williams, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, wants to hear from workers and employers. Through the middle of August, the Labor Department is holding an online dialogue, asking for input on policies that may help with workplace challenges arising from long COVID.
"We want to be responsive," says Williams. "We're considering how can we support these workers in what is a transformative time in their life."
She says the government has encountered situations in the past when there was a sudden rise in the number of people needing accommodations at work. Significant numbers of service members returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries, for example. Williams says such times have led to shifts in disability policy in the U.S.
From her home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Linders has contributed a number of comments to the Labor Department's online dialogue. Like Bishof, she also spends a lot of time helping other COVID long haulers navigate what she's been through, including qualifying for Social Security disability insurance.
Her advocacy helps her feel as if she's contributing something to society, even if it's not the life she wanted.
I think its majority vax injured, and/or once people got covid and then got the vax it effected them. Sure would like to know the number of totally unvaxxed people that are saying they have long covid. I don’t think that thought is even brought up, but it should be for truth and science
The person that I know that has “Long Covid” had it before she had Covid. She was a devout mask Karen but still managed to get the Chinese Bioweapon. 25 years old. Really into drama and lethargy when she was younger. She had started gaining weight which could be RX psych drugs before Covid and has increased that.
It sounded more like Depression than Covid. I was hit by a bout of Depression after getting Swine Flu.
That is not “long wuflu” that is an active infection. Rather then writing it off as "just something you have to live with" they should be actively investigating as to what is wrong.
Is that even allowed anymore?
It seems more and more the medical establishment's response is "no treatment for you!"
DING DING DING. A new victimhood groups. Say hello to the next letter for LGTBTQIA2SBIPOCWTF. “C”
She looks as upset as Moochelle Obama holding up the “bring back our girls” hashtag
How about now? 2 1/2 years later?
“I caught something January 2020. Upper respiratory. Weeks after still weak, shortness of breath and brain-fog.”
i caught it march 2020 and was VERY ill ... it had all the hallmarks of covid, including loss of taste, but not symptomatic of flu or a cold and did not test as covid ... weirdly enough, azithromycin cured me even though blood test did not indicate a bacterial infection ...
many others i know had the same thing happen during that period ...
since then i’ve not caught covid, even though i’m totally unvaxed, have always refused to wear a mask short of being carted out by the police and have taken zero other special precautions ...
My neighbor had “long covid” But he is overweight and in poor health. He recovered after about 6 months sans vaccination. I myself got covid sans vaccination. I was down and out about 2 weeks and ironically have been feeling better then I have in a long time after recovering. Alergies went away and I breathe much better.
I am with RummyChick here - CCP virus is “real” with regards to “long Covid”.
Like another commenter here, one scientific question is whether this effect is observed for the unvaxxed too (who got CCP), and for the vaxxed (who either did/not get CCP virus). If our givernment would quit playing politics with this we might get some scientific answers.
Let me share briefly my experience w this reality. Someone very very very close to me (”patient”) was vaxxed (2 shot regimen) in early 2021. Was required by employer (health care) hospital, administrative. In Jan 2022, patient came down w full blown CCP for 1st time. 4 very difficult weeks, had to apply for FMLA because of headaches, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss. Non vaxxed took care of person (you can guess who), close contact, take to/from Dr appointments,etc. Let’s just say I did not catch CCP virus to any appreciable extent from patient. For patient, improvements seen about 3 months later, but no full recovery. To this day, still fatigued that occurs almost daily, brain fog, headaches too. Primary care physician kept saying get rest, it will work itself out, and oh by the way ... patient should get 2 booster shots when patient feels better. Patient’s condition hasn’t changed in last 4 months. One month ago primary care Dr told patient that patient was showing signs of being a hypochondriac - said psychological counseling needed. Patient disagreed, said vaxxed Dr was not listening. This week after paid out of pocket paid brain scans, initial diagnosis is that patient has physiological brain matter changes seen with long Covid.
Was it the vax that caused this? Was it the vaxxed person getting CCP virus that caused it? We can’t tell as other specialists now are scheduled. What I know is that this person has a brain injury that might not be reversible, and whether it progresses to further disability is unknown. Despite this coming from NPR, a 100% mouthpiece for the demonkkraps, maybe they are coming around to the truth. I’ll leave my criticism of them for another time.
We (patient and me) are personally dealing with something that has been life altering, and the question will it get even worse, be permanently disabling and/or life shortening. Prayers to all that suffer this.
I don't believe that "long COVID" refers to lingering effects due to damage long after the body fights off the COVID-19 virus.
I think, in hindsight, "long COVID" has been found to be highly correlated with glutathione deficiency in the elderly. The lack of glutathione allowed COVID-19 to cause oxidative stress, which the body normally fights off with glutathione. With glutathione deficiency, the free radical super-oxidants will combine into hydrogen peroxide (which glutathione also breaks down into oxygen and water) and begin to attack the organs.
The supplement NAC will keep glutathione levels high, avoid glutathione deficiency, and help fight off the worst effects of COVID-19.
-PJ
See my post number 49 for a different point of view.
Pure BS. Another gimmick. I bet she got the four shot regimen.
Maybe she did get the injury from the 4 shot regimen.
Maybe the injury can manifest itself after just 2 shots.
Maybe the injury can occur with the shot then subsequently being identified (nose swab) as having CCP virus.
If you do read through the entire thread you’ll see other FRIends who say there is something for this story despite coming from NPR - an embedded, givernment funded demonkkrap operation.
It’s like lupus or fibromyalgia. No way to diagnose except by the self reporting of symptoms. I have seen people with chronic pain and fibromyalgia and others who said they had lupus. It always seemed they were able bodied. I think these are the illnesses that hypochondriacs end up being diagnosed with. Long Covid is the latest and there are people who welcome the diagnosis because they were so worried about Covid in the first place and long Covid is validation of their concern. I would then wonder about the medical histories of the patients, like how many of them had previously to 2019 reported symptoms of fibromyalgia.
I’m unvaccinated and caught Omicron AB two months ago. The sick part was over in just a week or so, but I still have short wind, struggle with more than three floors of stairs. Racing heartbeat after any exertion. I sleep a lot more, too.I also work from home, and can pretty much set my own schedule, but I don’t think I could handle things if I had an office job.
@ 55 thanks for the information. Based on some posts - Seems there is anecdotal evidence that I need to consider. Hope these long effects can be treated or simply disappear over time. cheers
Back in 2020, I read an article about a college cross country runner, then age 20, who got COVID that summer. She was basically an elite athlete in her group, at the top of her game, with her youth helping her to recover quickly from her meets. Months later, after first contracting COVID, she could still barely walk across the room. So yes, I believe it’s real.
I have a cousin who caught one of the original strains in the summer or fall of 2020, along with her two sons. There were the flu-like symptoms, the coughing and the loss of taste and smell. She recovered from it relatively quickly, but when I saw her, along with my uncle and aunt for New Years 2021, she said she still had an occasional lingering cough.
Long covid is a real problem. About 50% of people who go to the hospital for covid have symptoms from weeks to month to years afterwards.
10% or more of people who get covid but don’t go to the hospital get long covid.
The symptoms can be very mild—like lost of taste...to totally debilitating.
Your story is why the LDH isoenzyme test can be helpful...because even if all the other first round tests are showing nothing you can use the LDH test to say Look here..you may not understand this test but some brilliant scientist developed it and it is telling you there is a problem...thus you get past the hypochondriac BS.
Not saying it would have worked in your case. It’s just a tool to use.
Start looking at the articles that are studying the VAGUS nerve for Long Haul Covid. It might give you a clue as to something to try that might help.
Good Luck...and feel good that you ignored the professional and went with what you believe to be true..even if you had to pay out of your own pocket.
also there is a blood test that can be useful for white matter issues..Glutaryl-C5:DC
You might ask if it would be helpful to get her baseline of this test and then you can keep an eye on changes. It is typically ordered to look for glutaric aciduria.
I predict you will have to continue to fight tooth and nail to get testing.
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