Are You a Covid Long-Hauler?

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Body aches, fatigue, depression and brain fog -- symptoms that are all too familiar for people living with fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and other chronic pain conditions.

They are also long-term symptoms for many people who become infected with Covid-19 -- so-called “long-haulers” who never quite recover. Estimates vary widely, with one unpublished study finding that up to 80 percent of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 developed one or more long-term symptoms. Even patients who were never seriously ill from Covid face health problems months after their initial infection.

“My body aches, some of them got better, some of them got worse. I developed pains in my hands and in my wrists,” Covid survivor Catherine Busa told the Associated Press. “I know I’m going to sleep, I just can’t wake up. It’s like I don’t feel refreshed. I feel worse in the morning than I did the night before.”

The long-term symptoms of Covid are not fully understood and there is no cure.  But in an effort to get a better understanding of what’s happening, a self-organized group of long-haulers surveyed nearly 3,800 Covid patients around the world to document their lingering neurological and cognitive problems.    

Only 8 percent of long-haulers said they were sick enough to be admitted to a hospital for Covid-19. But the vast majority reported having fatigue, headaches, cognitive dysfunction, malaise and other health problems six months after the onset of symptoms. Nearly half have been unable to return to work.

“Among the most common symptoms were fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, and ‘brain fog,’ or difficulty thinking clearly,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said in a recent blog on the survey findings. “A small percentage of respondents, thankfully, seemed to have bounced back from brief bouts of Long COVID, though time will tell whether they have fully recovered.”

What makes the research into long-term Covid symptoms all the more pressing is the growing awareness that long-haulers may be acting as incubators for more communicable and deadly strains of the virus. These viral mutations could make Covid vaccines less effective in the future.

If you’re a long-hauler over the age of 18 who has not fully recovered from Covid, you can take the survey by clicking here. The survey is lengthy and will take between 45-75 minutes to complete. Researchers will use the data to release more studies on long-haul Covid in coming months.