By: PCEC Officers
Many COVID-19 survivors, anywhere between 50% and 80% according to the Harvard Health Blog, continue to experience disruptive symptoms such as “fatigue, body aches, shortness of breath, difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise, headache, and difficulty sleeping,” even three months after recovery. There is also a group of people who actually have damaged organs from their COVID-19 battle. Frankly, we don’t know why this is happening, however there is a theory for the group that has no known organ damage but who continue to experience symptoms. It has been speculated by experts that this group may have developed ME/CFS, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. ME/CFS, or chronic fatigue syndrome, is a condition which can make everyday things like vacuuming or going up stairs exhausting for those affected. This makes it hard for many people that have chronic fatigue syndrome to go to work or school. ME/CFS can be caused by other infectious diseases, which is why it is a suspect when it comes to COVID-19 long-haulers. It is estimated that the US economy spends $17 billion to $24 billion annually on ME/CFS. If ME/CFS is the culprit, chronic fatigue syndrome cases in the US are expected to double.
Some of the questions from the topic of Covid-19 Long Haulers were:
1. “How do you think Covid-19 long haulers will impact the USA long term?”
2. and “What can we do as a country to prepare to deal with some of those possible impacts?”
We had some discussion and got these answers. There will be better healthcare and more focus will go towards covid-19 in the medical departments. Someone also brought up a good point that working people will not be in their jobs if they contract covid or if covid gets worse- this will cause unemployment to go up and taxes to increase. Changes in society are also expected to change, what is viewed as “normal” will change. Covid deaths will increase and schools, education, extracurricular activities (sports), grades will all be impacted.
Thank you for everyone who attended, and hopefully we will have some new faces at our January meeting which is on the books for 11/25 at 11:30.