Although COVID-19 no longer makes daily headlines, some are on a mission to spread awareness about the impact the virus is still having on the community.
The University of Waterloo hosted a silent walk on Thursday to raise awareness about the condition known as Long COVID – when the impact of an infection is still being experienced months after the fact.
Those who have or had Long COVID, and supporters of loved ones with it, were among those on hand.
Comments closedThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated in response to the pandemic to state and community health departments, nongovernment organizations and international recipients, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a statement. “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”
HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the CDC, which is tasked with protecting the nation’s health. Notices began going out Monday, and awardees have 30 days to reconcile their expenditures. Figures are subject to change.
COVID-19 vaccination reduced the risk of developing ‘long COVID’ by approximately 27% in adults fully vaccinated before infection, according to a literature review carried out…
Comments closedThe Trump administration is shuttering HHS’ long Covid office as part of its reorganization, according to an internal email seen by POLITICO.
The email was sent Monday by Ian Simon, the head of the Office of Long Covid Research and Practice. It said the closing is part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ reorganization.
Comments closedCOVID may no longer be considered an official global emergency, but mounting scientific evidence suggests every COVID infection a person gets increases their risk of developing long-term health issues.
“There is no such thing as a COVID infection without consequence,” says long COVID researcher, David Putrino, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
The long-term effects can show up as long COVID, with symptoms such as shortness of breath, digestive problems, fast or irregular heartbeats, extreme fatigue and brain fog, or as silently accumulating cellular or organ damage.
Comments closedPeople who later experienced persistent shortness of breath or fatigue after a COVID infection were already taking significantly fewer steps per day and had a higher resting heart rate before contracting the virus, according to a CSH study published in npj Digital Medicine. This may indicate lower fitness levels or pre-existing conditions as potential risk factors
Between April 2020 and December 2022, over 535,000 people in Germany downloaded and activated the Corona Data Donation App (CDA). Of these, more than 120,000 voluntarily shared daily data from their smartwatches and fitness trackers with researchers, providing insights into vital functions such as resting heart rate and step count.
“These high-resolution data served as the starting point for our study,” explains CSH researcher Katharina Ledebur. “We were able to compare vital signs in 15-minute intervals before, during, and after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Comments closedIn a Swedish cohort, the risk of long COVID was much lower for vaccinated than unvaccinated participants in the year after infection, even when restricting the analyses to subgroups based on variant, age, sex, and previous infection status, estimates a study published last week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Karolinska Institutet researchers in Stockholm analyzed data from five registries to compare rates of persistent COVID-19 symptoms, or post-COVID condition [PCC], in adults infected from January 2021 to February 2022 by vaccination status in the 14 days before infection. Follow-up was 365 to 660 days.
Comments closedCrowds of people suffering long COVID rallied outside the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday afternoon to raise awareness of the debilitating effects felt by those still battling the disease.
People had gathered to call on the government to assist with funding for further research into symptoms and treatments, disability support, public awareness, and training for medical staff.
Via placards and speeches, protesters described their own various experiences and asked passers by and others in attendance to send letters to their MLA’s and MP’s, requesting support.
According to Statistics Canada, 3.5 million Canadians continue to suffer symptoms five years after the global outbreak of COVID-19.
Comments closed“There are people who don’t believe that,” says Valérie, who was in front of the Quebec National Assembly on Saturday to mark the International Long COVID Awareness Day. After catching COVID-19 just over three years ago, she has never recovered.
After her brief visit to the public awareness event organized by the Canadian COVID Society on Saturday, “it’s the rest of my day coming to an end,” says Valérie. When she returns home, she knows that she will have to stay in bed and avoid all contact.
Comments closedIt’s now been five years since the COVID pandemic stopped the world in its tracks. The virus is still with us, and continues to make people sick. As many as 1 in 5 Canadians have experienced symptoms of long COVID, but scientists are finding that beyond that, each infection can also lead to long term silent cellular and organ damage. David Putrino, who’s been studying COVID’s long term effects at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, says even mild or asymptomatic COVID infections can lead to a wide range of silent long term heath impacts — compromising our immune, vascular, circulatory, renal, metabolic, gastrointestinal systems and even cognitive function.
Comments closedDate: Saturday, March 15, 2025
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Where: Ottawa City Hall (meet at the entrance, Laurier Avenue side)
Join us for a walk on International Long COVID Awareness Day, Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 7 pm. The route is wheelchair-accessible.
Comments closedThe Québec network of clinics for long COVID still receives, each month, a hundred new patients, who sometimes have to wait up to six months before they can be treated.
“The problem now is that we have an accumulation of complex cases. It’s difficult to get new cases into treatment because we can’t finish with some patients,” says Simon Décary, Chair of the Long COVID Clinics Steering Committee.
Around 5% of people who contract COVID will still experience sequelae between three months and one year after infection. And around 1% of the population will have severe functional limitations to the point of needing services, says the physiotherapist.
Comments closed
