Hi 👋,
Not much in announcements this week. Slower news week in general, as well. Let’s jump into the news!
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📰 Media
Long Covid may be ‘the next public health disaster’ — with a $3.7 trillion economic impact rivaling the Great Recession
From CNBC:
Long Covid demonstrates that the virus is taking a lingering, pervasive and perhaps even more insidious toll. Medical experts have called it “the next public health disaster in the making.”
“This could be game-changing in terms of how we do medical practice, in the same way HIV/AIDs was a game-changer,” Hotez said.
All told, long Covid is a $3.7 trillion drag on the U.S. economy — about 17% of our nation’s pre-pandemic economic output, said David Cutler, an economist at Harvard University. The aggregate cost rivals that of the Great Recession, Cutler wrote in a July report.
“Long Covid will be around long after the pandemic subsides, impacting our communities, our health care system, our economy and the well-being of future generations,” the HHS report said.
My take: In my opinion, the only way Long Covid will get the adequate research dollars appropriated will be through articles & studies like this. This is the sad reality; the government needs to see the terrible downstream economic outcomes.
Long COVID Symptoms Most Common Among Latinos and Residents of The Bronx
From the City:
Latinos across the entire city and residents of The Bronx reported long COVID symptoms at disproportionately high rates last year, according to new data from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene obtained by THE CITY.
Of Latino adults in New York City, 30% who had COVID reported at least one long COVID symptom, compared to 23% of all white adults who had COVID.
Since COVID-19 is a new virus, studies like this one “are important to expand our understanding of its impacts,” Quinn said in an email through a health department spokesperson. The city health department is working to establish a system to monitor the prevalence and severity of long COVID among New Yorkers over time, the spokesperson added.
What Do ADHD, Long Covid And Ehler’s Danlos Have In Common? Meet The Mast Cell.
From Forbes:
Mast cell disease causes hypersensitive responses to potential allergens, often resulting in histamine release, which causes inflammation. Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) occurs when the mast cells behave like this across many areas of the body at different times, causing periods of significant ill health and disability
Mast Cell disease is more prevalent in neurodivergent people. It also cooccurs with Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome and Type II Diabetes. It has a very high overlap with long covid, and around 50% of people treated for long covid with an MCAS protocol found their symptoms improved.
🔍 Research
Persistent alveolar type 2 dysfunction and lung structural derangement in post-acute COVID-19
From Medrxiv:
In post-acute COVID-19 (PC) patients followed for a period of up to 399 days, we identified surprisingly persistent loss of lung lacunarity (as a proxy for pulmonary capacity), fibrosis, and perturbed immune and structural cellular components of the lung. Of particular note, we identified persistent presence of SARS-CoV-2 epitopes in the lung of PC patients,
Overall, we observed that PC cases showed distinct features in comparison to healthy lung or acute COVID-19, with extensive derangement of the vascular network
Female Sex Affects Respiratory Function and Exercise Ability in Patients Recovered from COVID-19 Pneumonia
🚨 Abstract Only
From The Journal of Women’s Health:
Abnormal alveolar diffusion was more common and severe among females.
These data show that at 4 months follow-up women recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia are more likely to exhibit a reduced alveolar diffusion capacity and exercise tolerance than men, although a similar severity of the acute disease.
Disruption in seasonality, patient characteristics and disparities of respiratory syncytial virus infection among young children in the US during and before the COVID-19 pandemic: 2010-2022
From Medrxiv:
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infection in young children*1.** The COVID pandemic disrupted the circulation of RSV and other respiratory viral infections in the United States for 2020-2021**2** .*
Furthermore, the RSV (+) cohort had higher prevalence of a prior COVID-19 infection than the RSV (-) cohort, suggesting the existence of common risk factors for both SARS-CoV-2 and RSV viral infections or the possibility that COVID-19 could constitute a potential risk factor for RSV among young children.
My take: I hope this spurs more investigations into the long-term implications of multiple covid infections on the immune system!
Impact of pre-existing chronic viral infection and reactivation on the development of long COVID
From the Journal of Clinical Investigation:
In a cohort of several hundred individuals with confirmed prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, we found that certain factors associated with chronic viral infections, such as serologic evidence suggesting recent EBV reactivation and pre-existing HIV infection, were independently associated with higher odds of various Long COVID symptom clusters
EBV antibodies have also long been associated with myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS),
Our study confirms and extends prior studies that identified an association between EBV EA-D positivity and LC symptoms, raising the intriguing hypothesis that EBV reactivation may be mechanistically related to specific LC syndromic phenotypes.
My Take: It would be really amazing if we could see more research into how EBV may be driving Long Covid & ME/CFS.
🩺 Hope & Potential Treatments
A new antiviral for long covid is being tested in South Korea!
This is wonderful to have all the resources in one place, thank you so much. 😊