Ten to thirty percent of all Covid patients will experience long-term symptoms, according to the latest study from Mt. Sinai’s Center for Post-Covid Care. Those numbers should act as a “wake-up call” for young people and motivate them to avoid infection, Dr. Peter Hotez of Texas Children’s Hospital said on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.”
Patients with post-acute Covid syndrome typically experience severe fatigue, shortness of breath, digestive problems, “brain fog” and a beating heart. Some can even develop type 1 diabetes after a Covid infection, said Dr. Hotez. Endocrinologists are still trying to understand exactly why this happens.
Another question that researchers cannot yet answer is whether the symptoms will last for the rest of their lives in Covid patients in the long term. Millions of Americans are already infected, Hotez noted, and those who had mild symptoms and were able to stay home to recover are likely to struggle with post-acute Covid syndrome later on, early research suggests.
Of all the lingering effects of Covid, Hotez told Smith, “the one that worries me most is the cognitive deficits. We call it ‘brain fog’ which makes it sound like it’s not that serious, but it is. You know that. people have terrible concentration problems and that’s why it’s so devastating because it’s hard for people to get back to work. “
Post-acute Covid syndrome will have a major impact on the economy and health care, Hotez said. Covid has a “heavy psychiatric burden”, including for people who were not infected. They may experience “post-traumatic stress” from the loss of a loved one, their livelihood or coping with pandemic living conditions.
“As terrible as the dead are, and as heartbreaking as the dead are, that will be just one of the many pieces of Covid-19 that will be with us. It’s also a wake-up call for young people,” said Dr. Hotez.