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Medicine

Nearly Half of Covid Patients Haven't Fully Recovered Months Later, Study Finds (nytimes.com) 102

A study of tens of thousands of people in Scotland found that one in 20 people who had been sick with Covid reported not recovering at all, and another four in 10 said they had not fully recovered from their infections many months later. From a report: The authors of the study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, tried to home in on the long-term risks of Covid by comparing the frequency of symptoms in people with and without previous Covid diagnoses. People with previous symptomatic Covid infections reported certain persistent symptoms, such as breathlessness, palpitations and confusion or difficulty concentrating, at a rate roughly three times as high as uninfected people in surveys from six to 18 months later, the study found. Those patients also experienced elevated risks of more than 20 other symptoms relating to the heart, respiratory health, muscle aches, mental health and the sensory system.

The findings strengthened calls from scientists for more expansive care options for long Covid patients in the United States and elsewhere, while also offering some good news. The study did not identify greater risks of long-term problems in people with asymptomatic coronavirus infections. It also found, in a much more limited subset of participants who had been given at least one dose of Covid vaccine before their infections, that vaccination appeared to help reduce if not eliminate the risk of some long Covid symptoms. People with severe initial Covid cases were at higher risk of long-term problems, the study found.

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Nearly Half of Covid Patients Haven't Fully Recovered Months Later, Study Finds

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  • by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Friday October 14, 2022 @04:13PM (#62967035)
    Trump is still suffering from hallucinations!
  • Are there any differences in outcomes between unvaccinated and vaccinated who've had Covid-19? What about between recipients of AstraZeneca vs BioNTech vs Johnson & Johnson vs Moderna vs Novavax vs Pfizer? I, for one, would really like to know if this is why I've felt like shit for 11 months.

    • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Friday October 14, 2022 @04:41PM (#62967127) Journal
      Are there any differences in outcomes between unvaccinated and vaccinated who've had Covid-19?

      From this article [nytimes.com]:

      The study did not identify greater risks of long-term problems in people with asymptomatic coronavirus infections. It also found, in a much more limited subset of participants who had been given at least one dose of Covid vaccine before their infections, that vaccination appeared to help reduce if not eliminate the risk of some long Covid symptoms.

      Or, if you prefer from the study itself [nature.com]:

      Compared to unvaccinated people, people vaccinated prior to symptomatic infection were less likely to report persistent change in smell (OR 0.58, 0.45â"0.76), change in taste (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.46â"0.79), problems hearing (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.44â"0.83), poor appetite (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.53â"0.99), balance problems (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.53â"0.95), confusion/difficulty concentrating (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.58â"0.89), and anxiety/depression (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.64â"0.92) at their latest follow-up after adjustment for potential confounders.

      The study does not mention any specific vaccine to determine if there were differences.

    • by edwdig ( 47888 )

      Vaccinated people seem to be less likely to get long covid, but most studies show that the difference isn't very big. And if you get covid more than once, the odds of long covid go up a bit.

      • Vaccinated people seem to be less likely to get long covid, but most studies show that the difference isn't very big

        Said as a reply to a study that said vaccination appeared to help reduce if not eliminate the risk of some long Covid symptoms.

        • by edwdig ( 47888 )

          Vaccinated people seem to be less likely to get long covid, but most studies show that the difference isn't very big

          Said as a reply to a study that said vaccination appeared to help reduce if not eliminate the risk of some long Covid symptoms.

          Those statements aren't incompatible. There have been a lot of long covid studies released recently. This particular one used a broader definition of long covid than most do, and included more minor symptoms in the definition.

          If you include the minor symptoms, like lingering cough, then yeah, being vaccinated helps significantly.

          For the studies that limited the focus to the worst symptoms, like fatigue and brain fog, then being vaccinated improves your odds, but not by a lot.

          • In that case, I will have to disagree with their findings. I've had Pfizer shots 1 and 2, and then got covid-19. That surprised me (at the time) because when I was younger, if I got a flu shot, I wouldn't get the flu. Now that I've had Pf1 and Pf2 and Covid-19, I think that Pfizer, et all should refund every penny of payment they received for these non-vaccines.

            If I could get a do-over, I'd NOT get either shot and would take my chances with covid-19 because I don't think I'd be any worse off.

            • by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Saturday October 15, 2022 @02:18AM (#62968089)

              I dont get what your grounds for disagreeing with it is? Personal anecdote is a completely unreliable basis for a disagreeing with a large study.

              And for reference, Flu shots have a similar efficacy to Covid shots depending on how closely the guessed the dominant strains. Between 40-60% efficacy in completely preventing it and significant reductions in severity (basically from "flu" to "cold") if you get it, and significant reduction in likelyhood of passing it on. Which is pretty much the same as the current vaccines against Omicron.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday October 14, 2022 @04:35PM (#62967107)
    and those sick jokes about "Boomer remover" will ring true. A lot of them aren't taking precautions, choosing to listen to some idiot with a bow tie instead of their doctors when it comes to medical advice. Improved treatment options are keeping them alive but the damage is done.

    That high blood pressure in your mid 50s? Now its' a stroke. The stroke in your 60s? Now it's a heart attack. It'll knock 10 years off life expectancy. All for the sake of a political wedge issue.
    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Do you actually follow a reason path or just dump out sentences and hope they connect with one another?

      • Look I'm sorry that you couldn't follow along so let me spell it out a little clearer.

        Older alt right fools have bought into Tucker Carlson's nonsense and are skipping necessary medicine. They will get sick and they will end up in the hospital. Doctors and nurses through a Herculean effort will keep them alive. They will go home thinking they made the right choice to skip the medicine because they survived.

        However there are long-term complications from their hospital stay that will eventually show t
        • by dryeo ( 100693 )

          How old are you that you consider people in there 30's to be old. There's lots of correlations showing older people are more likely to be vaccinated and careful, while it is mostly the younger who feel invincible and think the older people should huddle in their houses so they can go out and catch Covid, as it is only a flu.
          They're also the ones who seem to vote right and bitch about their right to remove others rights.

    • From the linked study, it doesn't seem that anyone who listened to their doctor did all that much better.

  • From reading the abstract, it seems to me the study is subject to selection bias. For instance, people suffering from long COVID may be more likely to choose to participate in the study, in order to help raise concern for their condition.
  • Willing to bet that a great deal more than 1/2 did not get vaxed.
  • "Nearly Half of Covid Patients Haven't Fully Recovered Months Later, Study Finds " The self reported sick population actually reported a much higher rate than 50% of having at least one symptom ... almost 70%! - but at the same time, 55% of the never infected group reported at least one symptom too. With the most common, being tiredness. And yes we are all f!kin' exhausted!

    The most interesting part of the study is the regression analysis which seems to point to some major long term differences in tast
  • In one corner, people who have actually experienced this horrible, life ruining condition, and the scientists studying it.

    In the other, a handful of sociopathic shitposters screeching "noooo its not real la la la i cant hear you."
  • And in near perfect synchronization with the next wave of COVID fear porn. Good job, Slashdot

  • The study says 6% self report they never recovered. Sadly this falls square in the range of percentage of the population who suffer from Illness Anxiety Disorder (Hypochondria). I strongly suspect that makes up the bulk of long Covid but I have read about a number of cases where months later some long Covid sufferers were still testing positive. The great challenge here will be separating the two.

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