2022 may be almost over, but covid-19 isn't!
I predict another surge coming soon, mostly because of 2 reasons
- New Year's parties of maskless people doing the exact opposite of social distancing
- China lifting restrictions, and people there using their newfound freedom to gather in large groups maskless. Add to the fact that much of China's population is either non-vaccinated or got the vaccines that are weaker than what's available in the USA or other Western nations.
Nina Wu, “Number of Long-COVID Cases Continues Growing, Potentially Affecting Hawaii Workforce,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, July 18, 2022, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2022/07/18/hawaii-news/number-of-long-covid-cases-continues-growing-potentially-affecting-isle-workforce/.
Villanueva, 40, of Kaimuki, used to run marathons and live an active lifestyle. The high-energy mother of two was vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 and had no underlying health issues.
She loves teaching, and has been a teacher’s advocate and mentor for the Hawaii State Teachers Association. In 2020 she was the recipient of its S.T.A.C.Y. Award for Teaching Excellence.
The day she caught COVID-19 has changed her life, and she clearly remembers it.
After working on a Tuesday, she recalls feeling really “off,” then came down with a sore throat in the evening, followed by a fever the next day. She tested negative on a rapid antigen test at home but decided to call in a substitute and get a PCR test.
She would eventually test positive for the coronavirus and isolate at home, expecting to get better after a week or so, but that did not happen.
After the fifth day she would have been able to return to work under current guidelines, but she was not feeling better or physically able to do so.
Instead, Villanueva said, she cycled through new symptoms daily for up to 16 days, experiencing everything from a loss of taste and smell to brain fog, piercing migraines, swelling hands and the “shakes,” or tremors, after physical exertion.
She saw several doctors before an infectious disease specialist informed her she was suffering from long COVID.
The doctor prescribed her medications for inflammation, which initially helped, but six months later she is still seeking help for other persisting symptoms such as the shaking, joint pain and fatigue.
Also in Hawaii, a former Waikiki bartender speaks of his experience with long covid
Jenn Boneza, “Waikiki Bartender Continues to Battle Impacts of Covid-19 Almost Five Months after Falling Ill,” (KHON2, August 1, 2020),
More than four months after Coby Torda tested positive for COVID-19, he still struggles with lingering complications caused by the virus.
The 38-year-old Waikiki bartender tested positive for COVID-19 in March. He thinks he contracted the virus while at work, but isn’t sure.
Torda spent 69 days in the ICU, most of that time in an induced coma. When he woke up, the world had changed.
“I just remember working and everything was normal and then waking up from my coma and everything was different. Everybody was quarantined. Everybody was in masks in the hospital with like tape and signs saying be careful when entering this room. It was a little bit scary,” said Torda.
When he came to, he’d lost 80 pounds, he couldn’t eat or drink and needed help going to the bathroom. He said he had to relearn how to do just about everything.
He was released from the hospital May 29th, but continues to struggle with the aftermath of COVID-19.
Another article on those suffering from long covid
Kate Murphy, “Covid-19 'Long-Haulers' Don't Want to Be Forgotten as the U.S. Goes 'Back to Normal',” Yahoo! News (April 7, 2022),
Long COVID has been a “traumatic change” for Mary Snipes of Kansas. An otherwise healthy woman in her early 50s, she was previously active in her community, campaigning against gun violence ever since she lost her son, Felix, to a shooting in 2018. Snipes caught COVID-19 in December 2020 and nearly died of the virus after being hospitalized for two weeks. “I remember the doctors and nurses asking me, 'Should we resuscitate?' And I started crying because I had never been asked that before,” she recalled.
Snipes never ended up on a ventilator, but was sent home with oxygen. More than a year later, she still remains on oxygen and experiences a multitude of symptoms, from joint pain and forgetfulness to hair loss. Snipes said this is the first time she has ever had a whole team of doctors. “I basically feel sometimes that I'm a lab rat, that I'm being used [for] research, because nobody knows what to expect.”
For Joe Farina in upstate New York, long COVID has stolen his identity. In March 2020, he was about to turn 50, in excellent health as a competitive athlete and former boxer and as a worker in the hospitality industry. Then he caught COVID. It first appeared as a bad cold, but within a week he had to be hospitalized. Farina was never intubated, but recalled, “It was really one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever been through.” He has since suffered from lasting cardiac and neurological issues and takes several medications to manage all of it.
An article from a writer with a compromised immune system
Lindsay Karp, “The Forgotten Immunocompromised Are Shouting from the Trenches,” Salon (November 13, 2022)
https://www.salon.com/2022/11/13/the-forgotten-immunocompromised-are-shouting-from-the-trenches/
Millions of people with compromised immune systems exist — in spite of the collective, tacit declaration that the pandemic is over. A significant number of them, myself included, don't respond to COVID vaccines, or respond minimally. According to The Atlantic, close to three percent of adults in the U.S. take immunosuppressants, totaling at least seven million immunocompromised people throughout the country. In July of 2022, the Drug Discovery World noted that immunocompromised COVID patients are more likely to require hospitalization and are about four times more likely to die once in the hospital than hospitalized immunocompetent COVID patients. Now, as the virus continues to circulate and mutate, the immunocompromised population is stranded in the trenches, pleading to be remembered.
You can't typically tell that someone is immunocompromised. I probably look healthy when I roam the grocery story, one of the few customers still wearing a KN-95 mask. But I see the eye rolls from customers and employees. I feel their judgement as I reach for a crown of broccoli, this white cloth hiding my irritation from the ignorance in the air. I sense some think this face covering shouts my political stance. Perhaps they believe I wear it because I'm overly paranoid. But I wear it because I have no CD20 cells, a subset of B-lymphocytes that attack viral invaders. An invisible, purposely-induced deficiency of these cells prevents further neurological damage to my body. Hence, I wear a mask solely as a mode of defense against the viral threat that many have dismissed as "just a cold."
But a simple cold is never simple when you live with an autoimmune condition strong enough to dismantle your ability to walk. Indeed, without the body's full pathogen fighting abilities, a routine illness, seemingly benign, can pose a serious threat to those of us with immunocompromised conditions of any kind.
and this
Do you hear me from way down here? I'm not telling anyone how to live their life. I'm not asking you to wear a mask as we enter public places together. I'm simply showing you that we, those who are immunocompromised, are shouting, loudly, to be heard. We deserve recognition that our lives are valued like yours. We want to be remembered as seven million Americans who matter to the majority. When you come to our home, we expect you to protect us in the one place we feel safe. We want you to see us, not as political activists (we're not), but as people. It would be swell if you could remember that immune system status is invisible. It would be kind if the world considered us and our complicated situations as they wonder why some haven't moved on beyond the crux of COVID.
I can't really force anyone to keep wearing their masks, but I'll keep mine on a little while longer.
