| With the delta variant on the rise in the U.S., national attention has focused on treating acute infections as cases and hospitalizations climb. But many patients are still suffering from long Covid, which can cause headaches, fatigue and other symptoms lasting months. President Joe Biden said Monday that the Americans With Disabilities Act would apply to long Covid, giving patients access to accommodations and protection from discrimination. While the announcement is a key step for patients, there's still a need for far more research on their condition. The disjointed U.S. pandemic response has led to inconsistent treatment for patients across the country and no standardized way to collect data, leaving long Covid clinics and researchers to operate largely without federal guidance.  President Joe Biden Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg Among the many nagging questions is whether vaccinated people remain vulnerable to long Covid; recent findings from the Survivor Corps patient support group and Yale University suggest they are. In a poll of 1949 fully vaccinated adults, 44 reported symptomatic Covid, and of those, 55% developed long Covid. The rate, obtained from a survey posted on Survivor Corps' Facebook page, is likely inflated, says Diana Berrent, co-author of a study of the data released Monday that hasn't yet been reviewed by experts in the field. "No one is suggesting that 55% of breakthrough symptomatic infections lead to long Covid in the general population," she says. But the survey indicates that breakthrough infections can and do lead to long Covid, she said. "At what rate? We don't know,'' she says. "But this is a very significant signal that tells us we need to be tracking this.'' The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks breakthrough cases that result in hospitalization or death. But they haven't been counting all breakthrough infections, nor are they counting long Covid cases. That leaves open the question of how many long Covid cases result from breakthrough infections, which are no longer extremely rare, Berrent said. "The symptoms are catastrophic for many people," she says. "And for many, the acute stage happens well after the contagious infection. The CDC needs to be collecting these numbers."—Rebecca Torrence | 
Post a Comment